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How many votes did the failure of 'Project Orca' cost the GOP? (GOTV experiences massive screw ups)
American Thinker ^ | 11/09/2012 | rick Moran

Posted on 11/09/2012 7:18:30 AM PST by SeekAndFind

Well, this is incredibly disturbing. And while I don't think you can place the blame for Romney's defeat on this massive screw up in their GOTV efforts, considering the margin of defeat in OH, FL, VA, and CO, it certainly didn't help.

John at Ace of Spades was one of 30,000 volunteers who were to take part in a brand new, high tech program that digitized "strike lists." Basically, the volunteer would be at a polling station and strike off the names of voters as they voted. Then, about half way through the day, they were supposed to send those lists to Boston so that calls could go out to people who hadn't voted yet.

Read the entire post for the maddening screwups that resulted from poor planning and unreasonable expectations of how "Project Orca" would work:

*****

From the very start there were warning signs. After signing up, you were invited to take part in nightly conference calls. The calls were more of the slick marketing speech type than helpful training sessions. There was a lot of "rah-rahs" and lofty talk about how this would change the ballgame.

Working primarily as a web developer, I had some serious questions. Things like "Has this been stress tested?", "Is there redundancy in place?" and "What steps have been taken to combat a coordinated DDOS attack or the like?", among others. These types of questions were brushed aside (truth be told, they never took one of my questions). They assured us that the system had been relentlessly tested and would be a tremendous success. [...] At 6:30AM on Tuesday, I went to the polls. I was immediately turned away because I didn't have my poll watcher certificate. Many, many people had this problem.

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


TOPICS: Campaign News; Issues; Parties; Polls
KEYWORDS: elections; gop; gotv; projectorca
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1 posted on 11/09/2012 7:18:38 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

John says the entire system crashed by 4:00 PM which means tens of thousands of potential voters never got a call to go vote. Many of those people probably voted anyway, but in an election where every single vote mattered, this kind of clusterfark should have been avoided.


2 posted on 11/09/2012 7:19:06 AM PST by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Hacked!


3 posted on 11/09/2012 7:20:38 AM PST by TigerClaws
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To: SeekAndFind

The system crashing was really irrelevant since no one could use it anyhow, as the credentials, instructions, signons, etc were all delayed/screwed up.

Basically you had the 30,000+ of the most inspired volunteers (set up in 11 states) flying blind on election day.

Instead of the tem making calls or getting people to the polls they were isolated and left hanging.(Almost like it was sabotaged).

We lost FL, CO, VA, OH by about 100,000 votes each.


4 posted on 11/09/2012 7:23:26 AM PST by nhwingut (Get out & Vote as if your life was on the line. Because it is.)
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To: SeekAndFind

I could be wrong, but didn’t Rove handle that for W? He is worthless as a pundit, but if he took care of GOTV efforts, why not get him back. Unless this is his mess too.

The GOP also needs a strategy to deal with voter fraud. I know secretaries of state handle voter rolls, but the governors should put as much pressure as possible. A rat governor would do it.


5 posted on 11/09/2012 7:23:48 AM PST by ABQHispConservative
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To: SeekAndFind

Excuses, excuses. This election was NOT about not being able to make last minute phone calls. The Dem get-out-the-vote effort won the election. It has been geared up and working hard for months.

The Dems sent buses with volunteers that knocked on doors and said, “Come on, let us give you a ride to vote. We will have you back home in 20 minutes.” I did not see one GOP bus pull up to the polling place with voters. Not one.


6 posted on 11/09/2012 7:31:02 AM PST by gunsequalfreedom (Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)
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To: nhwingut

I early voted in Ohio, but that didn’t stop the 8 phone callers that I got on election day from phoning me. In Ohio, we were bombarded constantly, every day, for several months, by telephone, by mail, by TV & radio ads. Constant.

I wonder now if there were some people who didn’t vote because they felt harassed by those urging them to go vote. I have been in Ohio since 1989, so this is the sixth presidential election while living here. It has gotten progressively worse each time, and this year it was beyond the pale (like 2004 & 2008 weren’t bad enough)!

I can’t wait to move to a non-swing state. Plans and preparation are underway to be outta here before the next election. The off elections are bad enough, but the presidential ones are unbearable!


7 posted on 11/09/2012 7:33:38 AM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: SeekAndFind

I was door-knocking off of these lists on Election Day in Hamilton County. I walked about five miles of sidewalks.

If the local coordinator had the sense to print them off THE NIGHT BEFORE, it worked just fine.


8 posted on 11/09/2012 7:36:14 AM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: gunsequalfreedom

Excuses, excuses. This election was NOT about not being able to make last minute phone calls. The Dem get-out-the-vote effort won the election. It has been geared up and working hard for months.


GOTV and the lack of GOP fightback early, especially in OH. The bailout and Bain trashing obviously worked for Team Kenya in the rust belt.


9 posted on 11/09/2012 7:37:21 AM PST by lodi90
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To: gunsequalfreedom

I agree. The Dems had one huge bus plus loads of volunteers on the day we went to early vote (Thursday before the election). GOP had zip, zero, nada...not one person there.


10 posted on 11/09/2012 7:37:47 AM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: lodi90
GOTV and the lack of GOP fightback early, especially in OH. The bailout and Bain trashing obviously worked for Team Kenya in the rust belt.

Yes, the Bain trashing early, along with the 47% comment from Romney were played over and over in Franklin county. It was over long ago, and the GOP didn't know it.

11 posted on 11/09/2012 7:41:52 AM PST by FamiliarFace
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To: TigerClaws

Great minds....


12 posted on 11/09/2012 7:44:32 AM PST by Perdogg (Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA4) for President 2016)
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To: nhwingut
Agreed, there were screw ups. But come on: McCain out polled both Romney and Obama? These people should have been waiting in line at 7:00 am.

One guy called Rush yesterday with the excuse, "Romney wasn't conservative enough and wouldn't take drastic enough measures, so I sat out." Really? So if you have a cancer med that is only 70% effective, you won't take it?

13 posted on 11/09/2012 7:45:55 AM PST by LS ('Castles made of sand, fall in the sea . . . eventually.' Hendrix)
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To: nhwingut

I had the Romney-Ryan app on my phone and I got a message to get out and vote....Wednesday morning.


14 posted on 11/09/2012 7:47:10 AM PST by Perdogg (Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA4) for President 2016)
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To: lodi90

Romney was constrained by this thing called “Campaign Finance Laws”, that said he couldn’t spend money on the General, until he was actually the nominated nominee.

Laws don’t apply to Democrats, as we all now know....


15 posted on 11/09/2012 7:49:21 AM PST by tcrlaf (Election 2012: THE RAPTURE OF THE DEMOCRATS)
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To: Perdogg

16 posted on 11/09/2012 7:49:56 AM PST by timestax (Why not drug tests for the President AND all White Hut staff ? ? ?)
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gotv ping


17 posted on 11/09/2012 7:53:18 AM PST by campaignPete R-CT (campaigning for local conservatives)
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To: tcrlaf

Laws don’t apply to Democrats, as we all now know....


If we don’t fight like dims we are going to lose.


18 posted on 11/09/2012 8:02:03 AM PST by lodi90 (Born free, won't die in chains)
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To: tcrlaf
I was door-knocking off of these lists on Election Day in Hamilton County. I walked about five miles of sidewalks.

Thanks, again, for doing that. So, did it end up that turn out was low for Hamilton County?

19 posted on 11/09/2012 8:03:04 AM PST by Jane Long (Soli Deo Gloria!)
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To: TigerClaws

I think more than just ORCA was hacked :(


20 posted on 11/09/2012 8:05:05 AM PST by Jane Long (Soli Deo Gloria!)
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