Obama Campaign and WVWV

by: Matt Stoller

Mon May 05, 2008 at 21:58

Voters and watchdog groups complained about the calls, and North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper ordered them to stop on Wednesday. Some saw a turnout-suppression conspiracy because the group's allies include so many Clinton supporters, especially Podesta and Williams.

On Friday, Barack Obama's campaign weighed in by circulating the transcript of a National Public Radio report on the calls. It noted that the North Carolina calls seemed to heavily skew to African Americans, including many women who had already registered, causing them to question whether they were eligible to vote in the primary on Tuesday.

Where the WVWV Debate Will Go

by: Matt Stoller

Thu May 01, 2008 at 16:07

A Digital Progressive Mob

by: Matt Stoller

Thu May 01, 2008 at 13:50

And yet, these are the kinds of nasty accusations coming at WVWV.

Did Women's Voices lie to the Virginia State Police when they promised to stop making anonymous robo-calls? Or were the illegal, anonymous calls in North Carolina just another "accidental omission?"

I believe this is the lowest point I have ever seen the blogosphere sink.  There is no reason whatsoever for this mob mentality to go after one of the most important voter registration efforts out there designed to empower women.  I don't meant that WVWV shouldn't be questioned and held accountable for its incompetence, but there is a difference between arguing that the group made mistakes and making the case that it is a voter suppression effort.  

There is simply no motive here for voter suppression.  If WVWV was trying to suppress votes in North Carolina for Clinton or Obama, why would they also be doing this work in 24 states at the same time?  If they are such an evil anti-progressive group, why would they award 'female blogger of the year to Digby' and run ads encouraging women to vote?

The most likely reason WVWV is engaging in weird voter registration efforts is because they didn't expect the primary to go on this long and their strategy was organized around registering voters for the general election.  There's a lot of hype around WVWV sending people information after the voter registration deadline had already passed, as if WVWV was trying to suppress primary votes.  But it's quite clear that WVWV is trying to register people for the general election, and that deadline hasn't passed.

Reminding people to vote after a primary registration deadline is an effective way to generate registrations.  'oh, I missed it, I won't miss it next time' is a powerful motivator.  This tactic has the downside of confusing and upsetting people who are registered, but if the lists aren't clean, I can see an organization deciding to annoy a bunch of registered voters in order to register others, especially if your metric for success is the number of voters you register and not the number of registered voters you annoy.  During a hotly contested primary, this is a big blunder, but in 2004 and 2006, WVWV probably did this and it worked to register a lot of voters without the intense focus on the irritation of registered voters.

Much of politics, including campaigns, is annoying people until they do stuff.  This isn't an excuse, but it does offer an explanation as to why WVWV isn't an evil group but probably used some irritating tactics to register voters.

There are some unanswered questions here, and WVWV has engaged in an utterly atrocious PR strategy.  They didn't put out the fires quickly, they weren't forthcoming with information, and they allowed a PR disaster to happen.  But, and this is a very big but, we screwed ourselves here by blowing this up into a story the Repubicans will use to damage all our voter registration efforts. We do not need these obstacles, considering the Supreme Court's recent decision disenfranchising voters.

Accusing a group of doing secretive robocalls, and then doing very little follow-up to contextualize any of it, is like irradiating an area.  This will not go away, even if WVWV is exonerated or it is found that the group made some innocent mistakes.  And the mob mentality online is just unbelievable and mean-spirited.

Women's Voices Women's Vote does one the most important and underhyped jobs in progressive politics, registering unmarried and disempowered women to vote using intense research methods.  They are also embarking on new models of voter registration for people of color.  They group is dedicated to empowering people.  Congratulations, aiko, for demanding I 'deal' with them.  

At times like this I feel like there is no movement at play in the primary at this point.  It's just a group of childish, whiny, spoiled cheerleaders of imperial gladiatorial combat.

Ridiculous.

Update:  Adam Bonin has a thoughtful take on the issue, which, while I disagree on many points, is carefully written and includes a nice set of responses from WVWv.

Some Context on WVWV

by: Matt Stoller

Wed Apr 30, 2008 at 17:43

this is information i know first hand. working assets has funded WVWV since it started in 2004.  we've seen the research and the field plans grow over time.

WVWV is the only voter registration group with two cycles of replicable randomized control studies showing the impact and cost efficiency of their mail and call based voter registration and GOTV work. here are a few things you may not know about WVWV.

1) WVWV doesn't just target unmarried women. they target hispanics and african americans. so it's not surprising at all that they are targeting black voters in n.c. they've done this in partnership with organizations like the NAACP in 2004 and National Council of La Raza more recently. they use their methods and infrastructure from the unmarried women work to get minorities on the roll. for instance, field groups and funders will pay them to do mail-based voter reg on african americans who don't live in the urban core where they can be cost efficiently registered via door knocking and mass site registration (at bus stops for example). so where minority voters may be more geographically dispersed, WVWV is employed to do that registration by mail order.

2) there is always a spike in voter registration around primaries AFTER the registration deadline has passed. this is the best time to register voters. research confirms this.  around primaries people are reminded that they need to register in time for the general. WVWV has done a lot of research in this area. they know when people are most likely to register. unfortunately, what makes sense in registering the largest aggregate number of voters for the general election at the lowest cost is having a confusing effect in the N.C. primary which is hotly contested and very charged.

3) WVWV has done a lot of research on how to layer communications so as to have the greatest registration rate at the lowest cost from its mail in programs. the calls increase the open rate of the envelopes with the voter registration forms. i've seen research they have done looking at volunteer calls before registration packets arrive v. robocalls. also i've seen research on the effect of who the call is from based on the gender and ethnicity of the targeted voter. are calls from a generic voter participation organization the most effective? or from an individual with a name and way of speaking that is similar to the target demographic.

4) WVWV is not a clinton-associated organization. yes john podesta is on the board, but so is mike lux and william mcnary -- both obama people.

WVWV has made big gains in turning out african american men and married hispanic women in the last two years. i think what is a general election strategy which has caused a wrinkle via misunderstanding in a primary context.

More (Chris): I just want to add that if one of the main goals of WVWV is on registering unmarried voters of all types, then WVWV is actually registering a slightly pro-Obama demographic. The composite primary season exit poll, which was compiled just before March 4th, lists umarried voters breaking 50%-45% in favor of Obama. Either Obama still holds a slight lead among this group, or it is basically a tie.