Democrats were not in charge of voting in Ohio. I live here.
We have a republican Governor, Secty of State, Treasurer, House, Senate, and Supreme Court. And the Secty of State runs our elections.
So, there are no excuses in Ohio other than extremely, lousy ground game. They thought a ground game was phone calls. Maybe once upon a time, but ground game now is identifying your supporters and getting an early ballot in their hands or driving them to the polls.
Anything else, any other kind of ground game is just a fantasy based on a hope.
Couldn’t agree more...the GOP needs to face reality; you can’t rely solely on volunteers for your GOTV effort. In states like Ohio, Obama never left after the 2008 campaign. They’ve had paid staffers in Ohio (and other swing states) for the past four years, identifying potential Democratic voters and perfecting their strategy for getting them to the polls.
By comparison, the GOP ground game is based largely on “contacts;” if you make a call or knock on a door and someone responds, the volunteer gets credit for a contact. It reminds me of a guy who climbed the ladder rapidly at the CIA. He sent lengthy reports to his bosses at Langley on a recurring basis, detailing all of the field contacts he had made. Never mind that nothing ever came of the contacts. He created a metric for measuring his performance, and he was far ahead of other field operatives in the “contact” game.
The GOP needs a professional ground game in all of the battleground states, and the time to put them in place is now, not 2016. And it should be easy enough in places like Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina, where the GOP controls state government. No excuse for not knowing where every likely GOP voter is for 2013, 2014 and 2016, and having a detailed plan for getting them to the polls.
And for God’s sake, tell everyone in the party to stop counting “contacts.” They mean nothing, except a phone call went through, or someone came to the door.