GOTV

I was at the Orange County Executive Committee meeting last night and my mind wandered, as it tends to do at these things when the "floor is open to discussion". There was discussion about the NCDP GOTV effort, about Obama GOTV effort, and about OCDP GOTV effort. There was a discussion about OCDP playing more of a role and how we could go about doing that. I was left wondering, how many people could we reach through BlueNC? So, I hate to take up front-page space with this, but I will, roll call.

You can tell as much or as little as you would like about yourself, but I'm wondering how many of you from the OC read BlueNC?

p.s. I am postdating this until tomorrow evening (3/27), so we'll see whether that works or not. : )

Dear friend,

As many of you know, I enjoy campaigning. There’s no better way to see our great state or get to know its citizens than attending the party functions, civic events and statewide conventions in which I’ve had the opportunity to participate over the last year. But some of the best times I’ve had on the trail came over the past month, when I joined local Democrats in Durham, Forsyth and Wake Counties to register voters.

Thats right NC's-8th, we've got a Konvoy with your name on it.

And I want anyone from the Triangle on BlueNC to be there.

You might have remembered my previous post, Triangle Dems for Kissell, which actually did not go off due to scheduling conflicts.
However we are giving it another go this weekend, THE WEEKEND, for 2006 elections!

Here are the details:
-As many people sign up and I will coordinate drivers and riders. Currently we have a bunch brave souls.

-We will be meeting at the Main gate at the RBC Center in Raleigh on November 4th at 8am. Leaving around 8:15am.

-It is only an hour drive to Fayetteville, which means very little gas guzzling, in little traffic. We will meet up and recieve marching orders at Kissell HQ in Fayetteville.

cross posted from kos

We need to talk about the atmosphere that is hanging around to many blogs these days. We seem to be dealing with a mixture of hope, fear, desperation and at least in some cases dread. This seems to be all swirling around at once and I know that all those emotions are YOU HAswirling around in me as well.

I don't see this as either a good thing or a bad thing, but wee need to recognize it for what it is and also that to some degree it is the result of 24 hour new cycle.

Here are the facts as I see them. It is simply a bad year to be a Republican no matter where you are. However, if you are an incumbent Republican you still have the natural advantage that comes with being the incumbent, or maybe not. The way that I see it, turn out at midterms is always dismal. Common sense tells me that people don't come out to vote for a status quo that they are less than enthusiastic about and I think that this is particularly the case this year. Large segments of the Republican base are disillusioned and unenthusiastic about the current agenda of the party that they think represents them.

A light rain on Saturday did little to dampen the enthusiasm of the group of volunteers and some of our local candidates, who went door to door in Stanly County as part of the Democratic Party’s 50 State Effort kickoff. Along with them to help spread the message was North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Jerry Meeks. The Stanly County Democratic Party is conducting a vigorous Get Out the Vote campaign this election season and there are plenty of opportunities to volunteer, from office work to door to door canvassing. Go to the Stanly County Democratic Party web site to sign up. Don’t just talk, Act!

Hey everyone! Guess we are down to the barbwire for the mid-terms are we not?

I bet everyone's looking for that extra way to help out our favorite local progressive candidates, outside of giving money and blogging support ;).

Well for those in the Triangle (& around), I have that gusto event youve been looking for. Join myself and many others when we carpool to Fayetteville, home of "the" electoral battle of the summer, on Saturday Oct. 28th to lend our unified support for Larry Kissell!!

Well looks like I have caused my first inter-party squabble. Seems like my plan to blog about the VAN has caused some concern about revealing too much about the NCDP “methods and capabilities”. I don’t agree with these concerns but since we all have more important things to worry about now, like electing a Democratic Congress, I will not be writing any more about the VAN.

For some fun reading, check out the Google links on the GOP Voter Vault database and ask yourself do we even come close to this. Note that one of the top five links is to the NCGOP web site.

The VAN
(Voter Activation Network) software allows you to enter data from call or walk lists by using a bar code reader. I bought a Wasp WCS900 barcode scanner from Amazon for $167.00. Yes there are cheaper bar code scanners out there, but I have used Wasp scanners in other applications in the past and they have worked well. Plus I get free shipping from Amazon so that allowed me to spend a few more bucks on the scanner.

This model uses PS/2 plugs to connect in between the keyboard and the PC. Wasp also has a model that connects to the USB port on the computer. Since our old computer at Party HQ doesn’t have any USB ports, I went with the PS/2 model. A barcode scanner sends the information to the computer in the same format as a keyboard, so no drivers have to be installed. Just plug it in and use it.

I am going to start blogging on my experiences using the VAN database in running our local GOTV effort. One of the powers of popular software applications is a active on-line community that shares tips, tricks and best practices on how to get the most out of the application. My intent is to start that kind of discussion here so we can leverage the knowledge of the netroots community to best use the VAN to support and elect our Democratic Candidates.

Feel free to contact me if you have questions or topic suggestions.