MoveOn Gears Up for 2008
By Micah L. Sifry, 03/13/2008 - 9:19am

Normally, I wouldn't take note of a job description, but this one from MoveOn.org Political Action piqued my interest. (And while they haven't yet posted it on our free job-board, you can check out some other cool positions there or list your own.) They're looking for an Electoral Organizing Tools Project Manager to work "on the development of cutting edge online organizing tools." Here are some excerpts from the job description, which lays out an ambitious but not unrealistic plan for the giant e-group, and hints at some significant upgrades in its integration of technology in its field organizing.

Our plan to win back the White House in November relies on mobilizing 150,000 volunteers in a massive voter contact program using these tools. This election is going to come down to who gets the most voters to the polls on Election Day. That's why we're planning one of the biggest voter-turnout programs progressives have ever run. We'll be calling millions of voters, knocking on millions of doors and using the latest technology to maximize our effectiveness.

At the core of our get-out-the-vote effort is the neighbor-to-neighbor program we ran in 2004 called "Leave No Voter Behind." We knocked on more than 4.2 million doors that year. Recently, researchers at Yale found that this face-to-face canvassing by MoveOn members didn't just increase voter turnout--it was one of the most powerful get-out-the-vote tactics ever studied.

We're also integrating the phone-banking effort we ran in 2006, "Call for Change," so that MoveOn members who aren't in swing states can make a big impact on this election by calling voters in swing states. We made 7 million voter calls this way--and paved the way for a big Democratic win in 2006.

This year, we'll take everything we know works and add new tactics to get all the voters we need to the polls on Election Day.

* We're enhancing our "micro-targeting" abilities to ensure that we find every progressive voter, even those in conservative neighborhoods or households.

* We're developing a sophisticated new effort targeting independent and 'swing' voters, to give them more information and persuade them to vote our way.

* We'll also be reaching out to voters who vote early or to ensure that we contact as many voters as possible before they cast their ballots.

Every part of this ambitious plan relies on software applications that we'll use to involve members and to increase voter education and turnout.

* We'll build on our current online precinct tool that volunteers in target states can use to take responsibility for turning out specific voters, to print walk lists, to enter results, to recruit and communicate with a team of other volunteers, and to host canvassing parties. We'll add google maps and other improvements to make the system easier to use and to motivate volunteers.

* We'll design a system that feeds voters identified at the door as undecided or as voting by mail into our calling program for targeted follow up.

* We'll create tools that paid field organizers will use to recruit and manage thousands of volunteers making many types of calls to voters and other volunteers from in-office phonebanks. We'll also modify our phone tool, which volunteers use to call voters from home, so we can target voters more effectively. Through the phonebanks and at-home calling we'll be able to quickly direct millions of calls to the highest impact calling.

Does the right-wing have anything comparable? Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think so.

I don't know

But this sounds a whole lot like the VAN. If they're building it from scratch, that means we have two. Which could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how you look at it.

I didn't really get into this in the Power to the Edge piece, but "does the right-wing have anything comparable" is a big outstanding question. My hunch is that distributed field like what Obama CA tried and what MoveOn is doing here is a strategic trail the right might not be able follow, but we're really going to have to execute.

The McCain campaign will most likely have a strong distributed component too. Bush did in 04 and I'm assuming the conservative field ops A-team will be running McCain. Remember that Matt Bai piece from 04, "The multi-level marketing of the President"...

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9502E7DE143AF936A15757C0A...

Moveon and voter contact

Great catch Micah.

Some comments on Moveon's voter outreach.

Voter phone banking is probably useless, and may be more than likely a negative for the progressive movement.

I, myself, was part of the "call for change" program in 2006 and made 100's of calls into swing districts. Most calls I made were to either A) numbers that were no longer in service B) answer phones C) voters who were mad as hell that I was interrupting their -- dinner, TV, family time, sleep, etc...

Let's just say profanities were used.

They are right that there was a study by Yale and Brookings (the authors are speaking here in DC next week at Brookings) in which they determined that the only GOTV strategy that actually produced results was door to door canvassing.

The results were limited to about a 2% lift, however. Not much.

My personal observations from the Kerry campaign as a volunteer canvasser in 2004 in Cleveland was that it was very difficult to connect on the 'street' if you were not from the neighborhood.

I felt like a poser. I often got questions about the neighborhood that I could not answer and I felt in-authentic.

This is exactly what occurred with the Dean campaign in Iowa with the "orange storm". 1000's of 20 something college kids with no understanding of Iowa and the residents trying to tell them to vote for Dean.

It was not authentic.

So while moveon may be able to generate good fundraising with these programs and give people a 'feel good' feeling (heck, I thought I was doing something good in 04 and 06) the actual data show that these programs do little good and, in my experience, may piss off voters to NOT vote for the progressive candidates.

I can't tell you how many times I got a "F*&^ You" on the other end of the "call for a change" phone line.

--
Cheers,

Shaun Dakin – CEO & Founder
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry
-- A non-partisan, non-profit program by Citizens for Civil Discourse
Register Your Phone Number Now for Free: http://www.StopPoliticalCalls.org/

Here is a quote tonight from a StopPoliticalCalls.org member

Plus, candidates will lose support.

Mitt Romney and friends called so many times in the two weeks before the primary that I started calling his CO headquarters back. In the end I told them that if he won the Republican nomination I would vote for any Democrat first. I meant it. If you harass me, you don't get my vote, plus I will actively talk against you.

--
Cheers,

Shaun Dakin – CEO & Founder
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry
-- A non-partisan, non-profit program by Citizens for Civil Discourse
Register Your Phone Number Now for Free: http://www.StopPoliticalCalls.org/



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