SCGOP 2.0: Data Harvesting & Analysis

Part 2 of Creating the SCGOP 2.0

Over the next few days I will be running through a few quick ideas on how the South Carolina Republican Party can invest in new technologies and fight back against the Democrats online.

:: Data Harvesting & Analysis ::

Even before the inception of the Victory program the South Carolina Republican Party has been harvesting voter data for volunteer action. We’ve used the data for phone banking, door-to-door, and direct mail. In the past we’ve done a good job targeting specific voters, but once the election is over, the data is brushed aside and lost on some abandoned computer or in a dust-covered box in the back of a storage unit. We spend hundreds of thousands of dollars collecting data only to throw it away after an election when we could be using it for future elections.

For example, if a phone banking volunteer learns in 2002 that a voter is pro-life and another volunteer learns in 2004 that the voter is still pro-life, high chances are that the voter will still be pro-life in 2008. There’s no need to waste time or money identifying that voter again on abortion issues.

The South Carolina Republican Party spends an extraordinary amount of funds and time harvesting data. We should combine the data from different election cycles so that we can learn more about election trends, regions, and voters.

:: Email & Cell Phone Number Acquisition ::

Direct mail has been the preferred method of communication over the past few election cycles. While still useful, the cost of postage is skyrocketing and the cost of Internet communications is decreasing. As technology changes the costs of communication methods, it’s vital that the South Carolina Republican Party adapts.

I recommend that we enact a massive volunteer email and cell phone acquisition program to obtain email addresses for 70% of South Carolina’s multiple Republican primary households. Currently we only phone bank during election cycles and it is during that time voters are receiving multiple calls from many sources and becoming annoyed. Using the previous referenced Internet Phone Banks, we should begin phone banking during the off-season to ask voters for their personal email addresses.

Acquiring email addresses for 70% of South Carolina Republican households will drastically change our election budgets and allow us to utilize our limited funds efficiently and effectively. Cell phone numbers will give us the ability to blast out instant text message alerts to Republicans across the state, a useful tool on and near Election Day.

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• Building the SCGOP 2.0: Internet Phone Banks
• E-Pending Works
• Purchased Email Address Lists Work
• SCGOP 2.0: Youth Outreach
• Let Your Volunteers Call From Home

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