How Democrats Won The Data War In 2008

A look at progressive voter contact methods shows how data-mining and targeting operations played a role in the election of Barack Obama. A year-long psycho-graphic voter targeting and contact operation performed by Catalist, a for-profit company, has been accredited with having helped Democrats win the 2008 data war. Catalist's member groups contacted a universe of 49 million adults more than 127 million times; about half of them managed to vote, representing more than 20% of all the votes cast. With a major caveat attached -- it's hard to know why individual voters are motivated to cast ballots on Election Day -- the report concludes that progressive data-driven targeting was "essential to progressive victories." In the 16 states targeted by liberal groups, more than one in three voters was contacted at least once before Election Day. The date shows the enormity of contact made by Catalist, but Catalist's CEO says the data might have just been "noise had the Obama campaign not embraced a methodology that used the data effectively."