This is the hardest part! Meanwhile the GOP primaries will be conducted in the dead of winter where folks aren’t out in places where they can be encountered easily.

about another reason we come to the elections “out-gunned.”

http://www.chicagonewscoop.org/candidates-capitalizing-on-hand-held-voter-data/

Candidates Capitalizing on Hand-Held Voter Data

by KRISTEN McQUEARY | Nov 21, 2011

When political candidates ring doorbells this election season, the people who answer should not be surprised if the stranger on the stoop seems particularly intuitive.

Technology is allowing candidates — many for the first time — to log into voter databases from their cellphones. The combination of data mining and hand-held connectivity gives canvassers instant access to files that may include details about voters’ political leanings, voting history and even magazine subscriptions.

“I think it’s fabulous,” said Robert Martwick of Norridge, a Democratic candidate for state representative. “In the old days, we went door to door with a poll sheet, and you basically knocked on a door, and you had no idea who you were about to talk to.”

This is the first election since legislative maps in Illinois and throughout the country were redrawn with data from the 2010 census, making the scramble for information about the electorate particularly intense for politicians navigating new district boundaries. Paperwork is due by Dec. 6 in order to get on the 2012 ballot in Illinois.

Martwick sought to improve efficiency and effectiveness on a recent Tuesday afternoon by downloading a map of retiree households in a four-block area: residents who were more likely to be home. And before knocking on a single door, he tapped his cellphone to pull up voter files on each person.

While collecting information about voters is not new, technology is making the files more detailed and convenient. Both political parties use databases that blend publicly available information, like voting history, with census data and certain types of consumer market research.

“In three elections,” Cisek said, “we aggressively used the new technology, and it was one of the things that made a difference.”

For example, in State Senator Michael Bond’s race in 2006, Democrats used PalmPilots — an early version of today’s smartphone — to interview thousands of Lake County residents about their top concerns. A week before the election, they mailed letters to the voters they had interviewed, telling them specifically what Bond would do to address their issue if elected.

“The paperwork of that would have been impossible without the database,” Cisek said.

Both parties guard their voter databases carefully and require passwords to use them. The detail in them varies by state. Democrats use a software program called VoteBuilder; Republicans use Voter Vault. In most states, candidates who want to use the database have to be vetted first.

And they often pay. The Illinois Democratic County Chairmen’s Association houses the database for Democrats in the state. The association charged the Senate Democratic caucus more than $20,000 to use it in 2010.

The RNC and many state committees have been offered the chance to get the equivalent of VoteBuilder for our Republican candidates. It’s called rVotes. Designed and created by the same fellow who created VoteBuilder, Steve Adler. You can find out all about it here: www.rVotes.com.

Here in AZ, the leftists, with the help of VoteBuilder, successfully recalled the author of SB 1070, Sen. Russell Pearce. Sen. Pearce’s campaign did Get Out The Vote the “old-fashioned way.” They used VoterVault and paper call sheets and uncoordinated phone calls. It was sad to watch.

In just a couple of minutes those same leftists will be announcing on the steps of the AZ Capitol recall efforts against Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Gov. Jan Brewer. The leftists, again, will be using VoteBuilder to gather their signatures to force the recall and then to Get Out The Vote. What will the AZ GOP and Maricopa County GOP committees, and the campaigns of Sheriff Joe and Gov. Brewer, be using? Well, as of right now, they won’t be using rVotes.

That’s something a few of us here believe we shall have to remedy.

I hope you will all take the time to go review and study LUR’s presentation.

Thank you.

ColdWarrior

This presentation really encompasses the scope of what we are up against IMO.

I’m going to show this to as many folks that I can.

Many are not willing to embrace neighborhood precinct canvassing and organizing from the right. I say we must do it.

Great job as usual LUR and thanks for your continued research and writing.

…though as an absentee voter the whole GOTV is difficult, I will definitely pass this along to my more politically active friends.

How do I get started in this modern effort.
Wwill be lout for signatures shortly.

ll help used for good conservatives.