Election surveys found at junction of I-4, I-275 (Tampa, Florida)

St. Petersburg Times ^ | November 03, 2008

[Dawn531]

Highway workers early Monday morning discovered hundreds of election-related questionnaires on the shoulder of the westbound I-4 ramp just before the entrance to southbound I-275 in Tampa.

About 4:15 a.m., documents scattered along the shoulder carried an alphabetical listing of Tampa residents, their party affiliations, age, sex, home address and sometimes phone numbers.

Each entry includes check boxes to mark whether each person supports John McCain or Barack Obama, whether they voted and whether they need a ride to the polls on Election Day

[Dawn531]

How does a political party or political entity get this type of info?

[Genoa]

Must have not liked the results.

[MrB]

Insiders.

Liberals tend to infest government positions and have access to this sort of thing.

[mlocher]

How does a political party or political entity get this type of info?

The same way that information from state computers on Joe the Plumber was obtained.

[hoosiermama]

Both parties in state where party preference are indicated have similar lists.....As part of the public information act it is available upon request.

My question: Who and Why was it ditched?

[Calpernia]

The RNC has the Voter Vault and the DNC has DataMart.

Those of us that work campaigns get log ins to work with the data.

[NonValueAdded]

Nah, standard GOTV stuff. You start with a list of the registered voters - most of that info contained therein is public - and bump it against your party database and the white pages (online), giving you phone numbers. Sort it and print it, then give it to your phone bank. They call and ask "who do you support?" marking the paper. Voila.

That's a ton of hard work lost on the side of the road. Damn, I hope it is RAT work and not elephant droppings.

[MrB]

ah, my assumption was that it fell off of a poorly secured transport.

[Calpernia]

It may have been accidental rather than ditched. It was at the side of the road. Maybe some boxes fell while driving.

[Calpernia]

bump

[BP2]

...recovered nine large garbage bags full of the documents...

...Each entry includes check boxes to mark whether each person supports John McCain or Barack Obama, whether they voted and whether they need a ride to the polls on Election Day...

...the bagged documents would be handed over to the office of Hillsborough County Supervisor of Elections Buddy Johnson (Republican) for inspection...