Best Time for Phonebanking? We Studied 2 Million Calls for the Answer

Phonebanking holds a critical place in an election campaign. It is a sure-shot way of having a one-on-one conversation with your electorates and persuading them to support you. Naturally, timing becomes a determining factor in the outcome of your call. So what are the best phonebanking times? The best answer rates for phone banking are 6-7 pm on Fridays; the worst are Tuesdays from 8-9 am.

Why?

Your volunteers and calling agents shoulder the responsibility of making appeals according to the supporter’s level. But to get to that stage, your calls must be answered, and the callee must have the time and mood to talk. Additionally, the timings should comply with FCC regulations.

You can reasonably expect the best outcomes when your campaign checks all these boxes surrounding the phonebanking timings.

This post will help you in that aspect.

We have studied 690+ phonebanking campaigns and 2,200,000+ calls hosted between August and December 2020 — the peak of the US presidential elections. The total duration of the calls was over 3963.87 hours (that’s 165 days — almost half a year spent only on calling!)

We analyzed the campaigns by:

• The answer rates per hour (time of day).
• Answer rates per day (day of the week).
• Duration of calls per day (day of the week).
• The average rate of machine answers per hour and per day.
• DNC rates per hour and per day.

The results can inform your phonebanking campaign timings, and the study aims to help you raise your answer rates and durations.

To understand whether phone banking is worth running at all, read is phone banking effective before optimizing your timing.

Quick answer: Best phonebanking times

• The highest average answer rate was between 6-7 pm at 23.38%, and the lowest was between 8-9 am at 17.64%.
• Fridays scored the highest average answer rate (22.21%) for the daily average, and Tuesdays fared behind at 19.29% (the lowest average).
• The average phonebanking call lasted 32.64 seconds. The longest average was 41.38 seconds (on Saturdays), and the shortest was 24.15 on Fridays.
• Phonebankers reached a machine about 28% of the time. The 9-10 am hour got the lowest machine answers (25.4%), and the 8-9 pm bracket got the highest (34.86%).
• Overall, the DNC rate was well below 1% throughout the day and weeks. The 8-9 pm bracket got the highest DNC rate (0.89%), while the 8-9 am bracket got the lowest at 0.18%.
• Sundays got the highest DNC rate at 0.65%, and Tuesdays got the lowest at 0.27%.

Disclaimers

• We have picked campaigns that originated from political accounts AND marked the campaigns to indicate they were phonebanking.
• The campaigns catered primarily to the US Presidential elections. Outcomes may vary for local elections.
• The campaigns spent a total of 14,269,926 seconds on calls (= 3963.87 hours = 165 days).
• While about 1.5% of calls were made between 9 pm and 8 am (of the next day), these timings are beyond the FCC stipulated calling hours. Thus, we have filtered out these calls in our charts. Some area codes also did not have US timezones and we filtered those out to keep the study relevant to American audiences.
• We look at four call outcomes in the study: Answer rates, duration, machine answer, and DNC. Of course, there are other outcomes (a bad number, for example). But since these outcomes are not relevant to the study of the best phonebanking timings, we haven’t considered them. However, they reflect in the total number of calls made.
• The calls considered in this study were made in the USA and Canada only.
• The DNC rates include instances when an agent added a contact to the Do Not Contact list (after the callee answered the call) or automatically (by set dispositions).

A note on the 2020 baseline: This data predates the full implementation of STIR/SHAKEN call authentication (completed by mid-2021). Raw answer rate benchmarks may have shifted since 2020 due to carrier spam filtering — but the relative patterns (evening peaks, Friday advantage, late-night DNC spikes) remain consistent with what we observe in more recent CallHub campaigns. See the section on STIR/SHAKEN below for what this means practically.

Highest phonebanking answer rates: When to call

Getting your calls answered is probably the most crucial part of a phonebanking campaign. Of course, your appeals and the callee’s agreement to act on it form the motives of a call. But to get to that point, you must catch your potential supporter at a time when they are free and in the mood to answer the call and have a meaningful conversation.

There are two ways to ensure you reach them at the right time:

• Study your previous campaigns of similar nature and find hints about hours and days that perform best for you.
• But if you don’t have such precedence, you can only go with a trial-and-error approach.

We offer a third way: to learn from similar campaigns from the industry and use their outcomes as a hint to schedule your campaigns.

Best phonebanking times: Best call answer rates by hour

Our study shows that the answer rate remains steady throughout the day, starting at 9 in the morning and dips at 7 in the evening. The average answer rate for the phonebanking campaigns was 21.17%.

The 6-7 pm bracket accounted for the best answer rate at 23.38%.

If we extend the scope of our analysis by another hour (9-10 pm), the answer rate swoops up to 34.87%. That seems like a solid number until you also check the DNC rate for that hour — a disappointing 1.98%. Although more calls were answered on average after the TCPA hours, more people also opted out of future communications, hampering the campaigns. That is a good sign that phonebanking campaigns must stick to the TCPA mandated hours.

Now, back to our analysis in those acceptable timings.

The lowest answer rate was between 8:01-9 am (17.64%).

Interestingly, the highest share of calls was between 5-6 pm, which got a 21.49% answer rate — slightly higher than the overall average answer rate.

The Political Group’s 2026 phone banking guide independently corroborates this pattern, citing 6-8 pm on weekdays and 10 am-4 pm on weekends as the optimal calling windows for political campaigns. That the recommendation emerges from a separate dataset adds confidence to scheduling around these hours.

Best phonebanking times: Best call answer rates by weekday

Fridays got the highest average answer rate at 22.21%, while Tuesdays got the lowest at 19.29%, followed by Mondays at 19.90% — probably a good sign that people are more likely to answer calls from unknown numbers as the week draws to a close.

The most number of calls were made on Saturdays, accounting for 15.58% of the total calls. Fridays had the lowest, accounting for 12.86% of the share.

Steps to boost call answer rates

• Set follow-up text messages for unanswered calls to inform them that you had called. The text could ask them to call you back. But if you are running a high-volume campaign where incoming calls can cause disruption, draft the message asking them what would be a better time to call, with suitable options. Try to keep the options for a new day so your agents can spend time solely on follow-up calls.
• CallHub allows you to see your campaign’s performance against all active hours. Keep an eye out for these call center analytics and pick your best-performing hours to schedule campaigns.
• Set up voice broadcast follow-ups for landline numbers that haven’t answered your calls. Remember, these contacts must have consented to receive communications from you to avoid ending up in their spam or DNC list.
• Segment contacts by timezone and call in local time. A campaign calling Eastern time contacts from a Mountain time HQ without adjusting will call two hours off-peak by default. CallHub’s Timezone Scheduling ensures calls go out during the contact’s local window, not HQ’s.
• Register your campaign number with STIR/SHAKEN. Authenticated numbers with Level A attestation pass through carrier spam filters more reliably, making the 6-7 pm peak actually reachable rather than marked as suspected spam before it rings. See the section below on what has changed since 2020.

Important note: CallHub automatically shuts down all campaigns at 9 pm on the initiator’s side (if you haven’t selected Timezone Scheduling). If you have chosen the timezone scheduling, we pause campaigns at 9 pm in the contact’s area.

After getting data for this study, we realized that calls reached contacts even after 9 pm (the limit of the TCPA compliant hours). We can think of two possibilities for this:

1. The contact list wasn’t segmented by residential areas, and calls were made in a time zone past 9 pm from an area behind in time.
2. Campaign managers leveraged human intervention to continue calls after 9 pm.

In any case, we saw earlier that the DNC rate was the highest at that hour. So was the machine’s answer rate (34.86%), while the average rate was 19% — more on that later. These statistics indicate that it is best to avoid phone banking beyond the TCPA-mandated hours for optimal results. For a full breakdown of federal and state calling rules, read the political robocall laws guide.

Best phonebanking times: Average phonebanking call duration

What good is a call if it lasts just seconds and doesn’t allow you to make a meaningful conversation? A phonebanking call is truly valid only if you can hold the callee by something of interest and get them to take the desired action (or at least increase engagement and be directed towards a high-barrier ask).

We’ve calculated the average duration of a call per day (total calls answered ÷ total call duration for the day). Here are the results:

Phonebankers held longer conversations on weekends than on weekdays. Calls answered on Saturdays lasted an average of 41.38 seconds (the longest), whereas those on Fridays lasted 24.15 seconds (the shortest).

Please note that these were average durations, and not to say that a call typically lasted 41 or 24 seconds. Our study only aims at looking at broad trends, and categorizing calls by their duration brackets is beyond the scope of this study.

However, if you wish to understand how long an average call lasted for the presidential phonebanking campaigns, write to us at [email protected] with the subject line “Phonebanking Call Durations,” and I will be happy to take that up for you.

Tips to extend call duration:

• Reach people when they are free to have a conversation. One way to do that is to set an appointment (of sorts) with them. Send a text survey asking contacts what day they are free for a call. Set auto-respondents so when they reply, you immediately ask for a suitable time. You can tag contacts by survey responses on CallHub, and that way, segmenting contacts and calling them at their desired time becomes easy.
• Write a compelling phonebanking script that has a very strong start. For tips, read: Create the Perfect Phone Banking Script for Your Calling Campaign.
• Train your volunteers to hold on to conversations even if a contact is not open to acting on your first ask. One way to do this is to go for a lower barrier ask rather than just hanging up directly.
• Compare agents on CallHub to see who has a good connect time and talk time. Get these agents to help those with poor talk time and set guidelines.

Please note that a long call duration may not always be a good aim. If a contact is not in the mood or doesn’t have time to talk, it wouldn’t be a good idea to stretch the call.

Peak times for machine answers

A machine answer indicates that you called a person when they were too busy even to answer the call, let alone have a conversation. Campaigns can rectify this by adding a disposition on CallHub to call back the person or drop a text if you reach a machine. But it helps to know the likelihood of reaching a machine to enhance your campaign.

Is there a trend or pattern of when phonebanking campaigns get a machine answer? We find out.

Machine answer rates: Hourly patterns

The average machine answer rate for political phonebanking campaigns was 28.78%. That means, of every 100 calls made, over 28 went to the machine. The machine answers peaked after 8 pm (34.86% was the highest average) — single-handedly increasing the average machine rate by 3%.

The lowest average machine answer rates occurred between 9-10 am at 25.4%.

While the average machine rate doesn’t seem like a terrible number, if we compare it to the average answer rate of 21.17%, we realize that over 50 calls for every 100 either went to the DNC list or ran into an error. We share some tips to improve this call performance.

But before that, let’s look at the average machine answer rates by the day.

Machine answer rates: Day-by-day trends

The machine answer rate for phonebanking campaigns between August and December 2020 remained relatively stable, between 26 and 31%. Thursdays got the highest average rate at 30.61%, while Fridays got the lowest average (26.23%).

Strategies to lower machine answer rates:

The most prominent reasons a call goes to a machine are that the callee cannot answer the phone or let it go to voicemail because they don’t recognize your number. Here’s how you can overcome both challenges:

• Busy times: Check with your contacts previously to see what is a good time to call. In high-volume campaigns like phonebanking, this is not always possible. In such cases, set the disposition directing the system to call back the person after an interval (we suggest a couple of hours).
• If you get a machine answer several times in a row: Leave a voicemail identifying yourself and providing a way for the callee to reach you (e.g., via text message).
• Unknown number: The solution to this starts considerably earlier — with a text message or calling campaign to all your contacts. At this stage, you introduce your campaign and ask contacts to save your number. Since these campaigns do not necessarily have a deadline, you can take time retrying nonrespondents several times. If that fails, you can rely on the first two tips.

Times most DNC requests occur

The DNC list is probably your most dreaded outcome. Campaigns want to avoid that as much as possible. And while factors such as a lack of interest, support, or engagement are crucial factors determining whether a person opts not to be contacted, timing can also play a vital role.

For instance, I may be interested in John Stuart’s campaign; I’m even considering voting for him. But if his campaign called me at 6:30 am, asking if I’ll join their event, it’s a hard no from me — for that event as well as future communications.

So, when do people tend to request DNCs from political phonebanking campaigns? Let’s find out.

Note: The 6:30 am example is a hypothetical example, and in this study, we stick to the 8 am-9 pm brackets only.

Hourly DNC request trends

Overall, the political phonebanking campaigns showed excellent performance in keeping DNC rates to a minimum. One Google search for political calls and your feed will be dominated by inquiries such as “How do I stop getting political calls?” and “Why are there so many spam calls in 2020?”

Even then, the campaigns that conducted phonebanking on CallHub in the Presidential election years kept the average DNC rate at 0.48%. The 8-9 pm bracket got the highest average DNC rate at 0.89%, while the lowest was between 8 and 9 am at 0.18%.

The 9-10 pm bracket was the only hour with a substantial number of calls made and a DNC rate of over 1%. The previous hour came dangerously close but didn’t touch the 1% mark. This shows that people are more likely to be frustrated with political phonebanking calls later in the day. The DNC rate started increasing steadily after 6 pm, keeping the sweet spot of fewer DNCs before evening strikes.

DNC requests by weekday

Tuesday stands out for its lowest average DNC rate — only 27 in 1000 calls resulted in a DNC outcome. While overall the campaigns managed to keep the daily average below 0.50%, Sundays, Fridays, and Saturdays (in that order) breached that number with a 0.65%, 0.58%, and 0.57% average, respectively.

How to maintain and decrease DNC rates:

• Maintain a clean contact list where people have consented to receive your calls.
• Stick to the TCPA-mandated and recommended timings (between 8 am and 9 pm). Avoid heavy traffic calling on holidays.
• Set expectations about the frequency, timing, and motivation of your calls beforehand.

Read More: Marie Kondo-ing Your Contact List: How to Clean an Existing Contact List

Does campaign type change the best time to phone bank?

The CallHub data above comes from a specific context: presidential election campaigns running August through December 2020. That context shapes the findings. A campaign at a different phase of the electoral cycle — or running a different type of outreach — operates under different logic.

Voter ID and persuasion calling

Voter ID calls (identifying supporters vs. undecideds vs. opponents) and persuasion calls (moving undecideds toward your candidate) are most effective in the 30-60 days before election day, once mailers and other campaign touches have already landed. The Campaign School’s calling guide notes that persuasion calls resonate more once a voter has received prior campaign materials — a cold persuasion call in August has a different reception from one in October when a voter has already formed an impression of the race.

For these phases, the CallHub evening and Friday timing data applies directly. Voters are home, the week is winding down, and the campaign feels immediate enough to take seriously.

GOTV phone banking: the 72-hour window

Get-Out-The-Vote (GOTV) phone banking operates on fundamentally different logic from persuasion calling. The goal shifts from moving opinion to turning out confirmed supporters. The timing logic shifts accordingly.

According to Evinco Strategies’ GOTV guide and the Pulsar GOTV guide, GOTV efforts should begin 7-10 days before election day for poll voters and 4 weeks out for mail and early voters. In the final 72 hours before the election, GOTV phone banking becomes the campaign’s primary activity. During that window, campaigns should:

• Call until 9 pm every allowable day from the Saturday before the election through election eve
• Prioritize confirmed supporters on your list — you are turning out people who will vote for you, not persuading undecideds
• Deprioritize answer rate optimization; volume is the goal, not the perfect time slot
• Call on the Saturday before election day regardless of the article’s data showing lower Saturday answer rates — the proximity to election day overrides normal timing preferences

The Campaign School reinforces this: GOTV calls are most effective on the Saturday before the election and on election eve, irrespective of day-of-week answer rate patterns.

Campaigns running 3 to 5 GOTV touches per confirmed supporter in the final 10 days — the number Pulsar cites — need to use every available calling hour, not just the optimal ones.

Voter registration and early outreach

Early-stage outreach — registration drives, event RSVPs, initial list-building calls — operates under lower time pressure. The CallHub data shows daytime answer rates in the 19-21% range between 10 am and 4 pm, which is lower than the evening peak but still functional. For campaigns that genuinely cannot staff evening sessions, daytime calling is a reasonable option during early outreach phases when list freshness matters more than timing precision.

Does voter demographics change optimal calling times?

The CallHub study represents aggregate data across hundreds of campaigns. A campaign with a very specific target universe — older voters in rural districts, or young renters in a city — may see different patterns within those averages. Here is what the research suggests for the demographic segments that differ most from the aggregate.

Older voters (65+)

Older voters are significantly more reachable by phone and more likely to answer calls than younger voters. Pew Research Center’s 2024 voter turnout analysis documents substantially higher political engagement among voters 65 and older, and this translates to phone reachability — older voters are more likely to answer calls from unknown numbers, more likely to engage in a conversation, and more likely to vote.

This demographic is also more likely to have landline numbers on file. Landline answer rate patterns differ from mobile: daytime hours (10 am to 2 pm) are often viable for landline-heavy lists in a way they are not for mobile-only lists. A campaign targeting an older voter universe should test daytime calling windows that the aggregate data would suggest skipping.

Younger voters (under 35)

Younger voters present the opposite pattern. Brookings Institution research on youth voter outreach notes directly that “young people are less likely to answer the phone and take surveys than older voters.” Lower phone pickup rates are consistent regardless of time of day for this demographic.

If your target universe skews under 35, optimizing phone banking timing is a lower-return activity than addressing the channel itself. Pairing phone banking with peer-to-peer texting during the same window — calling and texting the same contact within the same session — produces better reach than relying on calls alone. Evening timing from the CallHub data still represents the best available window, but the ceiling on answer rates for this universe is lower than 21.17% regardless of scheduling.

Multi-timezone and multi-state campaigns

A campaign calling into six states simultaneously from a single HQ faces a straightforward but frequently ignored problem: a 6 pm call from a Texas-based HQ reaches a California voter at 4 pm (good) and a New York voter at 7 pm (good) — but a Colorado-to-Florida campaign calling “at 6 pm” without timezone adjustment reaches Florida contacts at 8 pm. That is still within TCPA hours, but the DNC rate data shows meaningful increases after 8 pm.

The practical rule is absolute: calls must go out in the contact’s local time, not HQ’s time. CallHub’s Timezone Scheduling handles this automatically — campaigns pause at 9 pm in each contact’s timezone regardless of where the coordinator is sitting.

Some states also impose calling hour restrictions tighter than the federal TCPA 8 am-9 pm window. Texas limits calls to 9 am-9 pm. Indiana limits to 8 am-9 pm local time with additional restrictions for some call types. A multi-state coordinator should verify state-specific rules before scheduling, not just rely on federal minimums. The political robocall laws guide covers the major state variations.

Seasonal and campaign-phase timing considerations

The CallHub data was collected during August through December 2020 — the most concentrated period of presidential election activity in American civic life. That context inflates some metrics (voter engagement, willingness to take political calls) and does not generalize to every electoral environment.

Presidential and high-profile general elections

The CallHub study is most directly applicable here. Voter engagement is high, political calls are normalized, and the campaign window the data covers closely maps to a general election’s final phase. Campaigns in this context can use the 6-7 pm Friday peak as a reliable anchor for scheduling.

One caveat from within the data: as election day approaches, list exhaustion becomes a real factor. A contact who has been called three times in October may have a meaningfully lower answer rate and higher DNC rate than the aggregate suggests, simply due to call fatigue. Campaigns working the same list repeatedly should expect the timing premium to compress as the list ages.

Primaries and lower-turnout elections

Primaries differ from general elections in one critical way: the universe of interested voters is smaller, and voter engagement with political calls is lower outside the core partisan base. The same 6-7 pm timing window applies, but campaign managers should expect answer rates below the 21.17% average because the broader voter pool is simply less engaged with the race.

For down-ballot primaries — city council, school board, state legislative races — the pattern compounds. Fewer competing campaigns means lower voter call-fatigue, which can partially offset the lower engagement baseline. But the absolute contact numbers will be lower. Building realistic projections for a primary phone bank means calibrating down from the presidential cycle benchmark, not using it as a direct target.

Off-cycle and local elections

Off-cycle elections (special elections, municipal races outside the November window) tend to run against low voter attention. The timing data is directionally applicable — evenings still outperform mornings — but with an important difference: fewer campaigns competing for voter phone attention means the baseline call environment is less noisy. A voter who receives two political calls in an off-cycle local race feels less saturated than one who received 40 calls in a presidential cycle October.

For campaigns in this context, list quality matters more than timing optimization. A well-maintained, consented list called at 5 pm in an off-cycle race will outperform a broad, stale list called at 6:30 pm during peak hours.

What has changed since 2020: STIR/SHAKEN and spam filtering

The CallHub study data predates one of the most significant structural changes to phone call delivery in recent years. STIR/SHAKEN (Secure Telephone Identity Revisited / Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs) authentication was fully implemented by US carriers by mid-2021, per FCC mandate.

STIR/SHAKEN assigns each outbound call an attestation level based on whether the originating carrier can verify the calling number’s identity. The levels that matter for phone banking are:

• Level A (Full Attestation): The carrier has verified both the caller’s identity and that the number is assigned to them. Calls with Level A attestation pass through carrier spam filters most reliably.
• Level B (Partial Attestation): The carrier verified the caller’s identity but cannot confirm the number assignment. Some carrier filtering may apply.
• Level C (Gateway Attestation): The call entered the network from an unverified gateway. Higher likelihood of carrier spam labeling.

A campaign calling from a properly registered number through a STIR/SHAKEN-compliant carrier receives Level A attestation. That call is more likely to ring on the recipient’s phone at 6 pm. A campaign using an unregistered VoIP number or a recycled number that has been spam-flagged may find its calls labeled before they ring, regardless of time of day.

This means the 21.17% average answer rate from 2020 should not be treated as a universal benchmark for 2025-2026 campaigns. Campaigns with verified, registered numbers through STIR/SHAKEN-compliant infrastructure may see answer rates close to or above that figure. Campaigns using unverified numbers in high-call-volume environments may see meaningfully lower rates, with timing doing less work than the authentication status of the number itself.

Practical steps for campaigns:

• Confirm your phone banking platform routes calls through STIR/SHAKEN-compliant carrier infrastructure.
• Register your campaign number with the Free Caller Registry to improve recognition across carriers.
• Use a consistent number across the campaign rather than rotating numbers; number familiarity builds recognition over repeated contact attempts.
• Avoid reusing numbers that may have accumulated spam flags from previous campaigns.

For a full breakdown of what STIR/SHAKEN means for political campaigns, read the STIR/SHAKEN compliance guide.

Best time for phonebanking: Conclusion

CallHub strives for excellence, whether in the texting and calling tools we provide or the best practices we suggest to our readers. As part of that endeavor, we wanted to study the trends of campaigns and offer unique, accurate insights to political campaigns, nonprofits, and businesses.

This article, in particular, looked at 690+ campaigns that initiated over 2.2 million phone calls. Of course, no one can conclude any trend as the absolute truth. But through rigorous research and study, we can project outcomes to help your phonebanking campaigns perform better.

The timing data is a starting point. 6-7 pm on Fridays is the best time to phone bank if you are starting from zero data. But your own campaign’s analytics will tell you more than any aggregate study can — including which hours work for your specific list, your specific geography, and your specific voter universe.

CallHub’s campaign analytics let coordinators track answer rate, call duration, and DNC rate in real time, so you can see your own campaign’s best hours rather than relying solely on industry averages. Set timezone scheduling so calls go out in the contact’s local time, not HQ time. See how the analytics and scheduling tools work at callhub.io/platform/phone-banking/.

For a complete guide to running a phone banking campaign from start to finish, read the political phone banking guide.

Feature image source: AFL-CIO America’s Unions/Flickr.

FAQ on best phonebanking times

What are the best times of day for phone banking?

The highest average answer rate in the study was between 6-7 pm, with an answer rate of 23.38%. The lowest answer rate occurred between 8-9 am, at just 17.64%. The Political Group’s 2026 phone banking guide independently recommends 6-8 pm on weekdays as the primary calling window.

Which day of the week is best for phone banking?

Fridays had the highest average answer rate at 22.21%, while Tuesdays had the lowest at 19.29%. This suggests people become more receptive to unknown calls as the week progresses.

How long does an average phonebanking call last?

Across all campaigns studied, the average phonebanking call lasted 32.64 seconds. Calls on Saturdays were longest at 41.38 seconds, while Fridays had the shortest average duration at 24.15 seconds.

When are voters most likely to send calls to voicemail?

The average machine answer rate was 28.78%, meaning over 28 out of 100 calls went to voicemail. Machine answers peaked after 8 pm, with the 8-9 pm slot seeing a 34.86% machine rate.

Is it better to phone bank on weekdays or weekends?

For answer rate, weekdays — particularly Fridays — outperform weekends. But call duration is longer on Saturdays (41.38 seconds average vs. 24.15 on Fridays), which suggests weekend contacts are more willing to engage once they pick up. The optimal approach is to use Fridays for volume and Saturdays for campaigns where conversation quality matters more than sheer contact count.

What is the best time to make GOTV calls?

GOTV (Get-Out-The-Vote) calls follow different timing logic than persuasion or voter ID calls. Per Evinco Strategies and the Pulsar GOTV guide, GOTV efforts should begin 7-10 days before election day for poll voters and 4 weeks out for mail and early voters. In the final 72 hours, campaigns should call every available evening until 9 pm, prioritizing confirmed supporters over answer rate optimization. The Saturday before election day is a high-priority calling day regardless of its lower aggregate answer rate in the data.

Are older voters easier to reach by phone?

Yes, relative to younger voters. Pew Research Center’s voter data documents higher political engagement and phone reachability among voters 65 and older. This demographic is also more likely to have landline numbers, which can perform better in daytime windows (10 am-2 pm) than mobile-only lists. Campaigns targeting older voter universes should test daytime calling alongside the standard evening windows.

Does the best time to phone bank change for a primary vs. a general election?

The same timing windows apply (evenings, Fridays), but the expected answer rates will be lower in a primary than in a general election. Primary voter universes are smaller and less broadly engaged with political calls. Treat the 21.17% average from the 2020 presidential cycle as a ceiling for primary benchmarking, not a floor.

How does STIR/SHAKEN affect phone banking answer rates?

STIR/SHAKEN call authentication, implemented by US carriers in mid-2021, assigns attestation levels to outbound calls based on carrier verification of the calling number. Campaigns with Level A attestation (registered, verified numbers through compliant carriers) see more reliable call delivery. Campaigns using unregistered or recycled VoIP numbers face higher carrier spam flagging rates that can suppress answer rates regardless of timing. The 21.17% benchmark from 2020 predates STIR/SHAKEN — campaigns should calibrate expectations based on their own number registration status. For more, read the STIR/SHAKEN compliance guide.

What time should you not phone bank?

Before 8 am and after 9 pm, per TCPA federal regulations. The CallHub data confirms this is also where outcomes deteriorate: the 8-9 pm window already shows the highest DNC rate (0.89%) and the highest machine answer rate (34.86%) of any TCPA-compliant hour. Some states apply tighter restrictions — Texas limits calls to 9 am-9 pm, for example. Read the full state breakdown in the political robocall laws guide.

What are some quick tactics to optimize my phone banking schedule?

Prioritize 6-7 pm on weekdays (especially Fridays), avoid heavy calling after 8 pm, and keep early mornings light. Enable Timezone Scheduling so calls reach contacts at local time. Combine this with text surveys, follow-up texts, and callbacks to refine times further based on your own campaign data. And verify STIR/SHAKEN compliance before launching — your number’s authentication status affects deliverability as much as the time of day.

Tanvi Patel

Hi! I am a writer at CallHub, showing political campaigns, businesses, and not-for-profit organizations how to embed tech into communications. With a particular leaning towards research, I also explore trends and outcomes of past campaigns on CallHub.