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Romney’s Get Out the Vote Fiasco [A Revealing Read! "Monumental Failure"]
Commentary Magazine ^ | November 09, 2012 | Bethany Mandel

Posted on 11/09/2012 11:30:09 AM PST by Steelfish

Romney’s Get Out the Vote Fiasco Bethany Mandel 11.09.2012

The Wednesday before the election, Mitt Romney sent a special message to volunteers about a special project his campaign was working on: “With state of the art technology and an extremely dedicated group of volunteers, our campaign will have an unprecedented advantage on election day.” What is it they say about something that sounds too good to be true? It probably is. That was the case with the Romney campaign’s “Project ORCA.”

The idea behind Project ORCA was simple, albeit far too complex in execution. Romney’s Boston headquarters wanted a way to track who had been to the polls in swing states, and who had not. It was the most complicated GOTV (get out the vote) effort in GOP history. Volunteers in swing states would be assigned polling places. They would be given lists of every registered voter assigned to that polling location.

Those voters would be reported on to Boston via a web application when they arrived to vote, and if that failed, via phone or, as a last resort, voice. Volunteers were to log in to the application, use their assigned pin number and password, and begin reporting on voters who had come through their polling place by ID number. A source familiar with the campaign told me that Boston would initiate calls and visits to those who had not yet gotten to the polls.

The story of how monumental a failure Project ORCA was on Election Day was first reported by a volunteer, John Ekdahl, on the Ace of Spades blog. After tweeting the article, I was contacted by several other volunteers who were eager to explain in greater detail just how many things went wrong with Project Orca on Tuesday.

(Excerpt) Read more at commentarymagazine.com ...


TOPICS: Extended News
KEYWORDS: elections; orca; projectorca; romney
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1 posted on 11/09/2012 11:30:15 AM PST by Steelfish
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To: Steelfish

fed up of this crap, how about republicanvotes were not counted
110% turnout in Dem area

here is my county and it;s like this all over this part of the state.

http://enrnow.votesjc.com/FL/St_Johns/42920/111353/en/md.html?cid=0103

none of the results I;ve seen in WI, FL, NM,PA, OH, make any sense and I;ve gone county to county and seein some very over voting in Dem counties but liek my county we came out strong


2 posted on 11/09/2012 11:34:16 AM PST by manc (Marriage =1 man + 1 woman,when they say marriage equality then they should support polygamy)
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To: Steelfish

Basically the entire GOTV operation was non existent.

Unbelievable. There are your missing votes. Even McCain people called me - about 3 times. I got not one call from Romney, because no one knew who voted.


3 posted on 11/09/2012 11:35:13 AM PST by nhwingut (Get out & Vote as if your life was on the line. Because it is.)
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To: Steelfish

Contrast this reporting with Axelrod’s admission he used the 2010 Census data to get out the Obama vote in 2012.

Was this election stolen? Is anyone challenging the legality of Axelrod’s approach?


4 posted on 11/09/2012 11:35:58 AM PST by research99
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To: research99

when 108% of a area turns out to vote.

YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!!!!

Now. it could have grown 8% assuming 100% of that area turned out.

OR YOU HAVE A PROBLEM!!!

Did anyone check?

Romney is pulling a Nixon with hopes of running again.


5 posted on 11/09/2012 11:43:48 AM PST by cableguymn (The founding fathers would be shooting by now..)
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To: Steelfish
Here's the email I got re: Orca...

----

Dear ####
I am contacting you to see if you would be interested in participating in a unique volunteer opportunity this Election Day.

I will be heading up the national command center on November 6th and I am looking for talented volunteers to help out in key states across the country.

With less than three weeks to go, I am making a final push to bring on a few more supporters to help with this project.

Volunteers will be at the polling place from open to close on November 6th. These volunteers will be relaying critical information in real time, back to our national command center here in Boston.

If you're interested - just fill out the form at www.mittromney.com/orca by midnight tonight, October 21st.

Thanks,

dc

Dan Centinello
Deputy National Political Director
Romney for President
centinello@mittromney.com
6 posted on 11/09/2012 11:46:47 AM PST by nhwingut (Get out & Vote as if your life was on the line. Because it is.)
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To: Steelfish

From what I’ve read, the Warren campaign in MA used something similar, with a database of pledged voters and observers with smart phones. If the pledged voter did not show, they sent a car to deliver that person to the polling place.


7 posted on 11/09/2012 11:51:57 AM PST by DBrow
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To: Steelfish

Look, Romney convinced me that HE is a VERY good man, and would have made a wonderful President. But the people whom he hired to manage his campaign were disasters. If they had run the “no holds barred” effort against the Punk that they did against Gingrich, Santorum and others, the Communists would have been beaten badly, at LEAST by 5-10%. The losers in his campaign staff should be quarantined during all future elections. And Christie should be drawn and quartered. What a big, fat fraud and waste of a human form. Bob


8 posted on 11/09/2012 11:55:11 AM PST by alstewartfan ("I'm a graduate of rock&roll, Class of '58!" Al Stewart)
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To: DBrow
If the pledged voter did not show, they sent a car to deliver that person to the polling place.

Or just sent someone to vote in their stead - no ID required in MA.

9 posted on 11/09/2012 11:57:22 AM PST by Paine in the Neck (Socialism consumes everything)
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To: Steelfish
Thread on Breitbart's article about Orca here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2957375/posts

By the way, can someone tell me the HTML trick for posting a link?

10 posted on 11/09/2012 12:02:54 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: Steelfish
Thousands of unregistered voters voted in this election. ORCA was hacked.. Probably by order of 0bama through one of his agencies (NSA, CIA, etc).

This election was doomed before it started. Why do we expect a FRAUD for President to preside over a VALID election?

11 posted on 11/09/2012 12:04:53 PM PST by Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
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To: Steelfish

Do people really forget to vote and go to the polls after a stranger calls them to remind them?


12 posted on 11/09/2012 12:07:46 PM PST by wolfman23601
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To: alstewartfan

“the people whom he hired to manage his campaign were disasters.”

RINOmney hired and kept them.


13 posted on 11/09/2012 12:10:39 PM PST by aMorePerfectUnion (Gone rogue, gone Galt, gone international. Gone.)
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To: Steelfish

Nobody contacted me in the last three weeks before the election and I went and got my own yard sign.


14 posted on 11/09/2012 12:10:39 PM PST by colorado tanker
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To: nhwingut
Basically the entire GOTV operation was non existent.

My daughter worked the GOTV for McCain and Romney in NH and they made three times as many phone calls this time than they did in '08. They revamped the whole way the calls are done and were feeling very pumped about it whenever I went in to pick her up and chatted with the people at the Victory Center. I'm still stunned at what happened based on what appeared to be going on in terms of excitement and the GOTV effort.

15 posted on 11/09/2012 12:10:46 PM PST by cantfindagoodscreenname (I really hate not knowing what was said in the deleted posts....)
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To: Steelfish
My gawd, this is a case study in how NOT to do something like this at all levels. Whoever came up with the implemention plan for this should never be allowed anywhere near systems development ever again. No load testing? Not testing PINs? Not allowing users in to get used to the system before election day? And even sweating the details -not triple-checking the poll opening times? A Mongolian CF if there ever was one - when you only have one day to make sure it's right.

I mean, cripes, what is so secret about what they were trying to do and how they were doing it? The Dems do this already. And I have a Dem co-worker who was using their GOTV system election day and she said they had been able to access it for some time and it ran very fast.

16 posted on 11/09/2012 12:16:09 PM PST by dirtboy
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To: Obama_Is_Sabotaging_America
ORCA was hacked..

From this article, ORCA was a completely brain-dead system implementation.

17 posted on 11/09/2012 12:17:43 PM PST by dirtboy
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To: Steelfish

I know. I was a volunteer/guinea pig/victim.

It was a total cluster for me. Complete waste of time.


18 posted on 11/09/2012 12:18:09 PM PST by rightwingintelligentsia (Be careful of believing something just because you want it to be true.)
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To: alstewartfan

Priebus should have resigned by now, this is all on him. Even Michael Steele would have done a better job than this nincompoop.


19 posted on 11/09/2012 12:20:10 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: manc; All
I really wish people would remember that when they go popping off about how "more than half of Americans are children who wanted to vote for Santa Claus."

No, less than half of them were. It's why the Dems had to cheat.

We outnumber them. If we didn't, they wouldn't need all that vote fraud. REMEMBER it next time you feel compelled to hold the majority of your fellow Americans in contempt for being "children," because your contempt is based on a false premise. A hell of a lot of them voted for communism, but we still outnumber them. Essentially, if all this vote fraud is real, as it likely is, then MOST of our fellow Americans are on our side.

The fact that Romney lost because he was a liberal, that fewer Republicans than the number that voted for McCain 4 years ago troubled to vote in a choice they apparently felt to be as ultimately profound as choosing between Coke and Pepsi. It tells me that a hell of a lot of Americans are craving a limited government party -- more than half of them.

But as usual, the Stupid Party is bent on chastizing and scolding the majority of our nation.

20 posted on 11/09/2012 12:21:47 PM PST by Finny (Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. -- Psalm 119:105)
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