We as Utah Democrats rarely have an advantage when it comes to elections – but we do have something that the Republicans don’t: we consider talking to voters key to victory. Indeed, every campaign is taught the importance of going door to door and collecting information so that candidates can build relationships with voters.
But this method is time consuming and produces mounds of data that a team of interns could spend weeks sifting through. Even in small races, candidates and volunteers can reasonably expect to knock on anywhere from 100 to 300 doors a night. Every conversation, every changed resident, every positive or negative response is noted, and every piece of data needs to be imputed into something.
During the last election cycle I had the opportunity to volunteer on races across the valley. Some races had access to hand held personal digital assistants that had information regarding the neighborhood uploaded into them. Names, addresses, party affiliations, voter issues, and notes were all available for volunteers to look at before they ever knocked on a door. Furthermore, after contact was made, volunteers were able to input data on the house knocked on. This vital information would then be uploaded for the campaign to use at a later date.
These $100 devices could literally save campaigns hundreds, if not thousands of man-hours by avoiding monotonous data entry.
If there is one thing I know about campaigns, it is that you never have enough time.
Think about it – thousands of hours freed up and spent talking to voters, thousands of hours available for candidates to spend following up with donors, thousands of hours on hand to call volunteers. In short, thousands of hours better spent trying to win a campaign.
We, as a party, must invest in time saving technology. We must give candidates the tools they need to win, and we must maintain our digital advantage.
We have the advantage – let’s not squander it. Vote Curtis Haring for 2nd Vice Chair this April 18th at Cottonwood High. Details can be found here.
