My Favorite Campaign Video Of Ever

Here are some things I love; voting, West Wing and progressive women running for office. So, this video is basically like if ice cream were singing 90's karaoke while drinking a dirty martini. Bridget Mary McCormack is Regular Mary McCormack's sister (the one in the video saying that she is probably hot, smart and delightful) which is how this hot, smart and delightful campaign video came to be.

Here is the candidate in question's website.

Electronic Commitment Cards!

Oh God bless the OFA New Media team! They've done it again!

Back in the day (the same day in which I had to canvass uphill in the snow both ways) we used to collect commitment cards and then enter them into our database (known to campaign folk as "votebuilder" or "the VAN.") These commitments counted toward goals set for us by our Field Director (and probably a number of consultants) and were calculated based on the estimated turnout we would need in our respective regions.

But NOW you can skip the middleman and the data entry and put your commitment straight into the database! (To be fair, I don't know for a fact that that's how this works. I am just assuming.) If you live in a swing state and are supporting the President this is a great help to the campaign because it means the staff can focus their efforts on undecided voters who need an extra touch. As a bonus to you, the campaign is less likely to call you during dinner if you've already told them who you're voting for...unless they call to ask you to volunteer, but that's another story. You can also publish your commitment on facebook to let your friends and family know that you can't stop Barack.

DO IT HERE!!!

Speaking of Facebook...

I've been meaning to post about this. From Huffington Post:

Facebook users in Washington state will have something else to brag about to their online friends: that they registered to vote on Facebook.

The secretary of state's office said Tuesday it will have an application on its Facebook page that allows residents to register to vote and then "like" the application and recommend it to their friends.

We live in the future, guys!

The VAN just got EVEN AWESOMER

I am actually speechless over how amazing this is. Watch this video. I am without speech.

"Using Social Organizing, supporters can log into your website, match their Facebook and other friends to the VAN voter file, and then make the right contacts with the right friends, like calling persuadable friends and targeted voters, or emailing friends fitting the profile of a donor as part of a grassroots fundraising effort. Social Organizing then encourages supporters on to greater activity through game dynamics like points, achievement badges, and supporter leaderboards. As the only such tool integrated with the VAN tool used by almost every Democratic campaign and progressive political organization, Social Organizing enhances the voter file clients use for the rest of their field and voter contact work by adding valuable relationship and other codes."

BarackObama.com + Votebuilder

"Hey organizers, hope this makes your lives a little easier! Sincerely, the Barack Obama campaign and NGP VAN."

I actually got chills when I saw this on my facebook feed this morning. OFA technology plus my long term love interest, the VAN. Pretty cool!

God Bless Amercia!

Romney iPhone App misspells America! Romney/Quayle 2012?

Community Organizer, President, Stalker...

One of my good friends and I often play "SVU Title or DNC Email..." you know those one word subject lines that are titled "Outrage" or "Stunned" so I got a special kick out of this hairpin article which is basically just a list of "Subject Lines of Obama Campaign Emails That Sound Like a Stalker Wrote Them." Enjoy!

"Five years ago, today"

"Do you still live in Illinois?"

"Something I'd like to ask you"

"Join me for dinner?"

"Me again"

"What's stopping you, right now?"

"Sometime soon, can we meet for dinner?"

"You must be at least a little curious"

"I'm not shy"

"Guess who"

"Last chance at dinner"

"This is not a joke"

"It doesn't need to be this way"

"Wow"

"It's officially over"

"(I tried.)"

Gotta Vote

Gotta Love that Obama for American new media. Everything you could possibly need to know about how to vote is here. (You can easily change the state.)

What Should We Call Us?

(When someone tells me they don't vote?)

You know what I would really love? To make one of those animated Gif tumblrs for campaigns like #whatshouldwecallme However making those Gifs is harder than you might think, and like Gosling craze is doomed to eventual internet fatigue so…I’m just adding them to my Tumblr (I do what I want!) Check it out and feel free to submit!

Advocate From Where You Stand: SOPA

Nobody can put it better than Rachel Maddow. Wikipedia (and others') choice to shut down in protest to SOPA and PIPA is an amazing example of the power of direct political action. Check out the graphic below of support for the bill before and after the blackout.

Awesome.

At least SOMEONE is making it easier to vote

You've gotta hand it to the OFA new media team. In the throws of what has been termed the "GOP War On Voting" they've created a tool to fight fire with civic engagement. Gottaregister.com does everything for you but put the stamp on your registration and drop it in the mail (which some people would *still* need to get in their registrations but that's another issue).

You choose your state, fill in the fields provided and gottaregister.com populates a voter registration form ready to print and mail. It can even help you request an absentee ballot or change your registration address. The PDF generated by the site comes with a handy instructions (basically fold, stamp and mail) and an envelope already addressed to the board of elections. As if that weren't enough, your submission triggers an automatically generated email reminding you to submit the form (and how), thanking you for your support of the President (voter reg drives have to be non-partisan so you could technically register as a Republican, but the site is being marketing to Dems) and linking you to ways to stay involved. That's some field organizer follow up at its finest. (Okay, better if I got a phone call five seconds later asking me to volunteer, but the election year is young.)

I just want to throw out there...when one party is making it easier to vote while another is trying to keep people from voting, you gotta wonder who truly represents the will of the people.

For the record, I registered Democrat.

<3, Nancy
UPDATE: received another (2nd) follow up email from gottaregister.com, a day after I signed up, copy and pasted below. Way to follow up.


Nancy --

It's been 1 day since you filled out your voter registration form. Have you signed it and mailed it in yet?

The signed voter registration form must be postmarked by 1:00 AM on October 14, 2011 -- just 17 days away.

If you haven't yet, please mail your completed form to:

NYS Board of Elections
40 Steuben Street

Albany, NY 12207-2108

If you've already mailed your form, click here to let us know:

I mailed my voter registration form

Do you have questions about registering to vote? Call:

(518) 473-5086

You can print a new copy of your registration form by clicking here

If your form is incorrect, you've recently moved, or you need to start over, you can edit your form.

After you mail your form, make sure your family, friends and neighbors do the same.

Thanks,

Will

The Chicken and the Eh-gg

One of my many qualms with the way our elections are covered is that in an attempt to report public opinion, news outlets inevitably contribute to shaping that opinion. A candidate X sends out a press release that he has received over a 1,000 grassroots donations, a paper reports that candidate X has a swell of grassroots support and in response, others donate to X's campaign, perceiving him as the grassroots candidate. Soon we're left with the question of the chicken and the egg. Although I can't find a working link, last week Jon Stewart pointed out very this phenomenon vis-a-vis Donald Trump's 2012 candidacy.

To me, one of the most frustrating examples the exit poll. Research suggests that "exit polls appear to cause small declines in voting in areas where the polls close late for those elections where the exit polls predict a clear winner when previously a race had been considered close." Although this situation is relatively infrequent and, of course, reporters have a right and a duty to provide as much information as possible, my stomach knots up any time anyone sends a message about voting that boils down to "don't bother." Imagine a population where students and the working class, by necessity of their vocations, vote markedly later in the day than the elderly or wealthy, and the potential of such reports to skew voting becomes clearer.

I'm not the only one who feels this way, and Elections Canada is taking it to the extreme by banning Canadians from posting election results to their facebook and twitter accounts in the upcoming May 2nd election, even to personal pages. As this article points out "Presumably Canada’s policy disallows early release of vote tallies, rather than posts about an individual’s vote, but if the organization doesn’t formally clarify the policy means a person can’t post who they voted for or are rooting for, Canadians might as well avoid all social media on May 2."

This has me thinking. Where do we draw the line between preserving the sanctity of elections and preserving our right to disseminate and receive information about them?

What do you think?

2 Legit 2 Commit

I LOVE the OFA New Media team!

Awesome tool to share your reasons for voting with your facebook friends.

You can jump "levels" by getting others to commit to vote too, it's like a game! (Only with important consequences for health care, civil liberties and the environment).

New media has come so far since I started organizing, and although it will never replace field, when well done it is a great supplement to other efforts!

Hooray!