The Scarlet Letter
Campaign Insider
Obama wins with comfortable electoral margin
by Dave Nyczepir / Nov 07 2012
The 2012 election did come down to the state of Ohio, but it all happened much earlier than some had predicted.
President Obama won reelection over Republican challenger Mitt Romney, winning the battleground states of Ohio, Virginia, New Hampshire, Colorado, Iowa and Nevada. But once the major networks called Ohio for the president, the official reelection call was soon to follow.
While the battleground state of Florida is yet to be called,
What can the early vote numbers tell us?
by Dave Nyczepir / Nov 06 2012
When you take early vote numbers at face value, the signs point to a comfortable Obama lead. But when the polls close and the first numbers start coming in, be wary of reading into them, says Michael McDonald, early vote expert at George Mason University.
The estimated 133 million votes to be cast this election is a turnout 1.6 percent less than in 2008, but the estimated 46 million early votes—34.6
In Northern Virginia, long lines and provisional ballots
by Dave Nyczepir / Nov 06 2012
ARLINGTON, Va.—Thirty-eight hundred voters, five machines and three paper ballot stations. That's how many voters were assigned to Northern Virginia's central precinct Tuesday and the number of voting booths in the Central Library polling place. By 6 am, this location had the lines to show it.
Within an hour of polls opening this morning, the line of voters stretched out the parking lot, creating a two-and-a-half to three-and-a-half hour wait. Lois Wessel and
For Blue Dogs, history has led to this moment
by Brandon Howell / Nov 06 2012
For the last two years moderate Democrats have found themselves in dire political straits. While it might be easy to boil the reasons down to an election cycle that simply didn’t go their way, there’s also a historical angle to consider.
Think about it: Prior to the election of President Obama in 2008, the most liberal occupant of the Oval Office in the previous fifty years was arguably Lyndon B. Johnson. He was
An Election Day checklist: 10 tasks for Tuesday
by Dave Nyczepir & Shane D'Aprile / Nov 06 2012
With Election Day finally upon us, it’s the ground game that will separate the winners from the losers in close races across the country.
We asked a group of campaign managers and GOTV pros for an Election Day game plan and came away with 10 things your campaign needs to make time for on Tuesday.
1. GOTV reminders—early and often: The general consensus on this one is
Romney makes closing GOTV pitch in Virginia
by Dave Nyczepir / Nov 06 2012
FAIRFAX, Va.—The persistent chant from the crowd at one of Mitt Romney’s final rallies just about says it all: “One more day,” an estimated 8,500 supporters cheered at a Monday afternoon event in the Northern Virginia suburbs.
It was the last event in the critical battleground state of Virginia for Romney before Election Day and part of a grueling day of campaign stops that included rallies in Florida and Manchester,
7 counties to watch on election night
by Chris Palko / Nov 05 2012
Looking for some shortcuts when it comes to projecting which candidate has the edge Tuesday night? Once returns start coming in, turn your focus to these seven counties—they will be small scale indicators of that state and national results:
Prince William County, VA
Virginia will be one of the first states to report results on Tuesday night, and Prince William County is the most important county there. Romney needs to
Poll watching goes mobile
by Dave Nyczepir / Nov 05 2012
The majority of Democratic campaigns, up and down the ballot, will have real-time intelligence Tuesday on who has actually cast a ballot with the release of NGP VAN’s Mobile Pollwatcher.
Using the data, progressive field teams will be able to target their GOTV activities accordingly and avoid contacting people who have already voted. While Mitt Romney’s campaign launched a similar tool, NGP VAN boasts that its innovation is collaborative, so the
Torrent of late emails from Obama, Romney camps
by Shane D'Aprile / Nov 05 2012
In the campaign’s final hours, President Obama and Mitt Romney are still blasting their email lists with fundraising appeals and mixing in some GOTV messages.
“For a lot of voters out there, the difference between casting a ballot or not comes down to a single conversation with someone like you,” read a Sunday night email from the Obama campaign. “So don’t waste another minute -- start reaching out to voters using
A new reality for House contests
by Matt Laslo / Nov 05 2012
CARROLL, Iowa—House races have historically attracted relatively modest sums of money. Not this year.
Outside groups have changed the dynamic of contests across the nation by dumping millions of dollars into the battle for control of Congress and candidates are fighting to keep pace in the final hours of campaign 2012.
The spending is forcing campaigns to be fluid, swift, and to double down on the basics. Old-school retail politics is proving
It's all about GOTV now
by Shane D'Aprile / Nov 04 2012
BRISTOW, Va.—President Obama’s closing message to voters in the battleground state of Virginia: “It’s all up to you.”
After hundreds of millions of dollars in TV ads and months of open political warfare between the Obama camp and that of his Republican rival Mitt Romney, it’s now all about the ground game.
Rallying a crowd of some 24,000 supporters alongside former President Bill Clinton on Saturday night, Obama implored
MoveOn touts new turnout tool
by Dave Nyczepir / Nov 03 2012
Want to get a person to vote? Tell them their Voter Score.
At least that’s MoveOn.org Civic Action’s GOTV plan, which it tested during the 2012 Democratic primary in Delaware and boast is the best voter turnout tactic dollar-for-dollar.
By grading a person’s voter history for the last five years and mailing it to them along with their neighborhood average, MoveOn expects to get hundreds of thousands of
Newsletter Sign up
Please enter a valid email address
Sign up here to receive newsletters and special offers from Campaigns & Elections.
Advertise with Campaigns&Elections
