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Exclusive - Inside Orca: How the Romney Campaign Suppressed Its Own Vote
Breitbart.com ^ | 11/8/12 | Joel B. Pollak

Posted on 11/08/2012 10:30:53 PM PST by stillonaroll

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To: norwaypinesavage
I am serious. This morning’s email from Ryan was titled “Today we need your vote”.

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Wow! That shows a stunning level of campaign incompetence.

101 posted on 11/09/2012 12:38:39 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: stillonaroll

Can anyone run the Republican Party? I mean who is running this show, they haven’t had a decent chairman since Lee Atwater.


102 posted on 11/09/2012 12:40:01 PM PST by dfwgator
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To: stillonaroll

“The Rats have mastered the new technology, but we have not.”

I don’t buy that general premise. We did not have major glitches in 2004. I have to put it on the current team and only suggest someone thought their were more brilliant than the 2004 team, rewrote everything and screwed it all up.

The 2004 process used VPN (Virtual Private Network), personal over-the-Internet-from-home, plus Email driven downloads and uploads against the same, constant-real-time updated database - making all activity whether call center run or otherwise seemless with each other. “Facebook” and “Twitter” apps would have integrated with it with ease. There was just no excuse. We have mastered it.

I have to put it on the current team and only suggest someone thought they were more brilliant than the 2004 team, rewrote everything completely and screwed it all up. Frankly, that kind of “I’m better than the last guy” mentality is NOT foreign in the IT world; and I’d guess the Dims have a 50/50 chance of rewriting their operation in some worse fashion next time.


103 posted on 11/09/2012 12:42:07 PM PST by Wuli
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To: No Socialist
For my own mental sanity, I’m going to tune out for a while and try to figure out how to keep my business going another 4 years.

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I have similar thoughts. Other than tax policy, I probably won't be following politics as much as I have.

However, I think it is instructive to do a post-mortem on this election. There are a lot more problems than just GOTV, but it is something that the GOP must execute much better in the future.

104 posted on 11/09/2012 12:46:00 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: stillonaroll

Capn Ahab killed Moby Dick ???


105 posted on 11/09/2012 12:57:12 PM PST by Tennessee Nana
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To: Wuli
On another thread, someone mentioned that they have not been contacted by the GOP in any way since 2004. Was that the last year that GOTV efforts did not use smartphone technology?

My theory is that the Rats gained a few points in GOTV-driven turnout since 2004 because they have "evolved" their campaign strategy, while the R's have not kept up.

I can see how an elderly McCain campaign would fail to keep up with technological advances, but inexcusable for someone as successful in business as Romney said he was.

106 posted on 11/09/2012 12:59:45 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: MitchellC
I think something like ORCA could be a powerful tool. Really, each state GOP should undertake something like this, but combine it with traditional outreach and GOTV. Don’t overly centralize it either, delegate it out by regions, to counties, to neighborhoods. Probably better to have a neighbor knocking on doors than it is to get a robo-call from across the country. And instead of waiting for a prez or congressional election to try it out, do a dry run in the odd-year elections.

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Good ideas there. Don't have top down organized GOTV without strong local GOTV efforts. Most importantly, don't wait until the presidential election to test the system.

107 posted on 11/09/2012 1:07:55 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: stillonaroll

the problem is not “smartphone” technology or not

most any “smartphone” user has access to the Internet ON the “smartphone” using the browser app on the smartphone, and has access to their Email from the smartphone, and can upload and download files from their smartphone; and the database in 2004 was fully integrated from all points, as I said

and, in fact all the 2004 “Internet” links would continue to work through “smartphones” without an specific “GOTV smartphone app”

the essentials of the system is simply linking all volunteers to the same database, so as to say: “here’s some people and their phone numbers that need calling”, the confirmation reponse that the assignment is accepted, the volunteer follow-up response which is no more than a check-off list of which of the assigned numbers were called, and what the response was; and that response confirms two things - calls completed and calls that are again open to be called by someone else because they were not called or were called and not reached

using a “smartphone” does not change that operation or its requirements to any great degree

I think the 2004GWB operation had involved close to a million volunteers on the system in the final week of the campaign

I can’t think of much of it I could not do from my smartphone today that I did from my PC in 2004.

NO. I think someone rewrote the base system, thinking, in error, “smartphone” technology required it, when in fact anything special for “smartphones” would have only needed extensions to the system as it was in 2004, but I am frankly not certain any were really needed.


108 posted on 11/09/2012 1:21:44 PM PST by Wuli
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To: Lancey Howard
Some stanky looking "activist" knocked on the door and asked for my wife. I just said "we're not interested."

However, that kind of contact, from someone polite and articulate, seems very unlikely to motivate a voter to actually vote for the other candidate. The most likely result is no change in voter behavior, but a certain percentage will be persuaded and will vote accordingly. That is enough to sway a close election.

The Rats do more of it, and are better at it, than we are.

109 posted on 11/09/2012 1:23:00 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: Brandonmark

My packet arrived Sunday morning - 3:25 am. I tried to cut and paste the relevant section unsuccessfully - but the bottom middle “Chair...” was correct on mine - the checkbox was labeled “Copy of Credentials”. My credentials were emailed to me Sunday night. Pretty close call in this kind of operation.

I was never able to log in from my phone (did get to the proper https page ok - put in login id and password, just never worked). Never worked. There was another volunteer at my voting location, he was able to get through for a very brief period. Absolute disaster in operation - I called and did get through to headquarters, only to be told it was down and would be up in a few minutes - then resetting my password, then my Logon ID and password - never willing to implement any of the backup procedures they had established. 30000 volunteers - I would really like a report on the result but haven’t seen one. How much information was actually gathered on election day - about 20 names made it through from my voting location in a timely manner - out of almost 1600 that voted, leaving several hundred that could have been contacted. We gathered the information by hand on our printouts but had no way to effectively give the information to them - even though I offered multiple ways to effectively give it to them, either by marked up email or by phone.

Romney’s team really blew this one. Big time. I know they were worried about being hacked, and maybe they were - they should let us know. I spent 13 hours straight dedicated to trying to make this work - 30000 people that were vetted (they checked all volunteers to make sure they didn’t have telltale signs of being pro-Obama - checking social media, etc...)and were enthusiastic to help make a difference - and instead of truly organizing to the local level where things could have been effective - they wasted our time and lost what should have been won.

It’s obvious the Democrats cheated - the high (100% in some precincts) voter turnout is absolutely unbelievable. I frankly was amazed at the difficulties the likely Obama voters had - they had just moved in, didn’t have ID, expired drivers licenses, etc... that caused a lot of provisional votes if at all, to think 100% could do it all right in Cleveland, give me a break. But even if cleaned up Obama probably still have won a very, very slim majority due to some conservatives unwillingness to support a non-perfect candidate and the absolute failure of the GOTV effort because someone made a decision to go big - modernize. When all the votes are actually in, the analysis seems to support he will have had more votes than McCain - while Obama’s numbers collapsed from 4 years ago. If Project Orca had actually worked, Romney should have won by a large margin.

Sorry to vent - I’m just p****d that Centinella did not get this thing field tested - a dry run that would have given them time to fix the flaws. In retrospect, at least in Ohio where voter lists are updated at 11am and 4pm, the Party needs to work a deal with the state to just get a download of the information - even if they pay for it. Would be well worth it, would have accomplished the goal for knowledge and freed up thousands of volunteers to actually get the vote out.


110 posted on 11/09/2012 1:52:50 PM PST by LibertyOh
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To: stillonaroll

The campaign needs to expect such dirty tricks and plan for them.

I worked for a giant aerospace company. In 1984 we were working on a multi-billion dollar proposal.

We found out that our General Manager’s secretary was sleeping with the Program Manager of the competitor.

We created a secret, alternative proposal with themes, pricing, etc. and made sure it crossed her desk.

We won, of course. The enemy bought it....hook, line, and sinker.

Trap ‘em, spoof ‘em, deceive ‘em.


111 posted on 11/09/2012 2:00:27 PM PST by darth
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To: darth

Orca bookmark


112 posted on 11/09/2012 2:02:13 PM PST by greyfoxx39 (We told you Mitt wouldn't win.)
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Comment #113 Removed by Moderator

To: stillonaroll

“My theory is that the Rats gained a few points in GOTV-driven turnout since 2004 because they have “evolved” their campaign strategy, while the R’s have not kept up.”

my theory is that any technical snafu was less than the actual, in the precints “ground game” making use of what all the volunteers got into the database

lastly, the GWB campaign and the RNC were integrated in 2004 with respect to the GOTV effort and its ground game, & they did not depend on the party apparatus in the states for that effort or the ground game in the precincts; it connected with them but the RNC people, organized for work in the precincts, did not work for or on the instructions of the state party people; I don’t know how the operations connected or did not connect this time


114 posted on 11/09/2012 3:03:33 PM PST by Wuli
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To: Brandonmark
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. The impression I got was this was taken care of because they had "registered me". Others were as well. But apparently, I was supposed to go on my own to a Victory Center to pick it up, but that was never communicated properly. Outside of the technical problems, this was the single biggest failure of the operation. They simply didn't inform people that this was a requirement. In fact, check out my "checklist" from my ORCA packet:

Are you effing kidding me? What a disaster.

I wasn't with ORCA (thank God). I was with lawyers for Romney which is a different branch. This one was done old school. The person in charge here made sure I had my credentials and did a good job with us.

Credentials matters are basic poll challenging 101. No poll chair in his right mind will allow someone in without proper credentials. They take poll security very seriously.

Unbelievable. Before worrying about the fancy stuff, take care of logistics 101.

115 posted on 11/09/2012 4:31:47 PM PST by Darren McCarty (If most people were more than keyboard warriors, we might have won the election)
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To: darth
Trap ‘em, spoof ‘em, deceive ‘em.

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Love it! Seems the R's can't seem to learn that being nice to the Rats will never be reciprocated.

116 posted on 11/09/2012 5:25:37 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: stillonaroll

And of course, no mention of the fact that Mitt Romney was not like by the base at all, that he supported both Abortion and the Gay Agenda and the negative impacts that had on Christians voting.

No, the problem was all procedural, not the fact that he was the worst GOP Presendential candidate ever!


117 posted on 11/09/2012 5:49:41 PM PST by SoConPubbie (Mitt and Obama: They're the same poison, just a different potency.)
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To: SoConPubbie
As I mentioned upthread, there is a lot wrong with the GOP primary process: takes too long, too many candidates qualify for debates, and too many Rats are allowed crossover votes. That is another issue for another day.

Romney's weakness as a candidate is also a separate issue, and we must avoid--at all cost--another Romney/McCain/Dole nominee.

What Breitbart and others are highlighting is a failure of a key component of winning campaigns: GOTV = get out the vote operations. The GOP's Orca technology failed miserably, as a number of FReepers experienced personally.

In every election, there is a small percentage of marginal or persuadable voters, some of whom will only vote if given an extra nudge by a committed volunteer. In a close election, as we just experienced, those incremental votes can be crucial.

118 posted on 11/09/2012 6:48:20 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: Darren McCarty
What makes it even more confounding is that it came from the campaign of a man who portrayed himself as more competent than his opponent.

Hopefully, the Stupid Party has learned its lesson.

119 posted on 11/09/2012 7:39:39 PM PST by stillonaroll
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To: Wuli
Someone upthread said that the Romney campaign tried to centralize the GOTV efforts nationally. Apparently the connections were not made effectively with local efforts.

Whatever was done this time must not be done again.

120 posted on 11/09/2012 7:56:32 PM PST by stillonaroll
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