Re:Democrats relied on one company to power its campaigns. N...
by bwestergard on Thursday October 05, 2023 @03:44PM
(#37783331)
I worked at this company (NGPVAN) as a software engineer for several years early in my career, leaving in 2015. It is hard to overstate how central it is to the Democratic voter turnout organization nationally.
It is difficult to say how important GOTV efforts are in deciding Presidential election outcomes today. But I am fully convinced of the impact down-ballot.
Re:Democrats relied on one company to power its campaigns. N...
by jfengel on Friday October 06, 2023 @12:13PM
(#37792672)
I've participated in GOTV efforts, and I've gotta say it's pretty demoralizing. I don't believe that I've gotten even a single extra person to the polls.
I know that it's never going to be as simple as somebody smacking their head and going, "Gosh, is it November already?" But I've knocked on a lot of doors on election day and practically every one of them was "Yep, already voted". Those that weren't were "Nope, not gonna." We weren't out there to change the minds of the latter group; that's what months of campaigning are for. In theory I could arrange transport for somebody who wanted to vote but had logistic issues, but I never once actually had to.
We were sent to houses that they knew were likely to vote for our side -- presumably this software, though I was much too far down the process to see that. Often, it was obvious from the yard signs. They'd done an impressive job: I never once knocked on a door and was told, "Nope, I'm voting for the other guy".
I did notice that the coordinators had a good understanding of the outcome, presumably due to internal polling. I knew the result in 2016 at a time when the opposite was still considered pretty much a done deal, on the day.
I certainly gave up on doing phone banking, where the median response was "please stop calling". I didn't do GOTV in 2020 with the pandemic. I don't know if I'll show up next year, but probably not.
Re:Democrats relied on one company to power its campaigns. N...
by Simulacra on Thursday October 05, 2023 @03:54PM
(#37783462)
NGPVAN also provides advocacy CRM's for nonprofits. The UI is terrible and support just as bad, but its one of the few catering their CRMs to just nonprofits.
Re:Democrats relied on one company to power its campaigns. N...
by lsaferite on Thursday October 05, 2023 @04:20PM
(#37783794)
Why wouldn't the Democratic Party just buy the company if it's so central to the party operations? Letting a PE firm buy it and squeeze it seems like bad planning.
It is difficult to say how important GOTV efforts are in deciding Presidential election outcomes today. But I am fully convinced of the impact down-ballot.
I know that it's never going to be as simple as somebody smacking their head and going, "Gosh, is it November already?" But I've knocked on a lot of doors on election day and practically every one of them was "Yep, already voted". Those that weren't were "Nope, not gonna." We weren't out there to change the minds of the latter group; that's what months of campaigning are for. In theory I could arrange transport for somebody who wanted to vote but had logistic issues, but I never once actually had to.
We were sent to houses that they knew were likely to vote for our side -- presumably this software, though I was much too far down the process to see that. Often, it was obvious from the yard signs. They'd done an impressive job: I never once knocked on a door and was told, "Nope, I'm voting for the other guy".
I did notice that the coordinators had a good understanding of the outcome, presumably due to internal polling. I knew the result in 2016 at a time when the opposite was still considered pretty much a done deal, on the day.
I certainly gave up on doing phone banking, where the median response was "please stop calling". I didn't do GOTV in 2020 with the pandemic. I don't know if I'll show up next year, but probably not.
Managing your donors and voters is your central competency. Outsourcing it is the height of folly.