Tech Daily Dose

The following guest entry was written by Doug Chapin, director of electiononline.org.

Voting across the American mainland on Tuesday occurred largely as I would have expected. There were reports of scattered problems in Indiana, Ohio and elsewhere -- plus bad weather, which closed at least one polling place in Washington State -- but by and large the day started off without major incident.

The first YouTube moment of the day occurred in Ohio, where Rep Jean Schmidt, R-Ohio, was filmed struggling to get her optical scan ballot to feed into the machine. There were also reports of pollworker no-shows and machine start-up problems in several states… an inevitable consequence of the massive changes we've seen in elections at the local level.

The next big event will be poll closing time, when votes are tabulated -- we'll be watching to see whether or not this morning's problems are present at the important steps of translating votes into vote totals. Stay tuned...

Posted by Andrew at 05:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Robocalls," those automated telephone messages of, by and for politicians, are the subject of significant controversy this Election Day.

Led by Talking Points Memo, Democratic bloggers have been decrying what they see as fraudulent calls, and now the mainstream media suddenly have latched onto the story. As noted at The Hotline's Blogometer, ABC News, The New York Times and The Washington Post were among the publications to pick up the story.

As was the case with the "Google bomb" story in the blogosphere a couple of weeks ago, Tech Daily was ahead of the curve. We introduced our readers to political robocalls in August as part of our special series on the intersection between politics and technology. We've had more coverage since then as the controversy mounted.

The latest coverage has focused on the calls by Republicans, but our original story by Andrew Noyes, who has been blogging up a storm here today, shows that the GOP does not have a monopoly on robocalls. Here is that story:

A telephone call from sweet, Southern-twanged "Mary Ann" might have helped crush the bid by Republican Ralph Reed to become Georgia's lieutenant governor. The caller, who slammed Reed's past lobbying efforts, was affiliated with Campaign Money Watch, a well-known Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to improving campaign finance laws.

Mass-dialed, computerized calls like Mary Ann's have become common in American politics, and most use popular political figures or celebrities. Former President Clinton recorded one for Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., who lost his primary last week. Actors Billy Crystal and Sally Field recently lent their voices to a pre-school-focused ballot initiative in California.

The technique usually utilizes extensive call lists to reach would-be voters and is classified as political speech, dodging FTC-enforced "do not call" rules against telemarketing. Democratic political-messaging expert Marty Stone said his clients' participation and listening rates have actually increased since the national do-not-call registry was launched in 2003.

"Phone calls, either live or automated, should be used to have a conversation with voters," Stone said. "There are only a handful of mediums where you're having a conversation -- e-mail, phones and door-knocking." Others, like TV and radio advertising, are passive "push mediums," he said.

Continue reading "'Robocall' Mania" »

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The following post was written by staff writer Michael Martinez, who spent the day observing polling places in Maryland.

Business was surprisingly smooth at the three polling places I visited in Maryland today. Voter turnout at the precincts at the Leisure World retirement village in Silver Spring and University Park Elementary School in Hyattsville was particularly impressive. Elections officials in Hyattsville told me that lines there had been long, but manageable since polls opened this morning. Only at Columbia Union College in Takoma Park did lines seem thin.

On a non-tech related note, I picked up one of the controversial "voter guides" being passed out in Prince George's County that inaccurately lumped Gov. Bob Ehrlich and Lt. Gov. Michael Steele with Democratic candidates. The Washington Post already has the scoop. Allegedly, some of the folks passing out the guides were recruited at a homeless shelter in Philadelphia and bussed down to Maryland. I didn't meet any of these volunteers myself, but the precinct at University Park Elementary was buzzing with the news.

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The following guest entry was written by Mitch Bainwol, CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. He previously worked for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and held other positions on Capitol Hill.

Election Day. There's nothing like it. Other than my wedding and the birth of our kids, my most memorable -- joyful and painful -- days have been these special Tuesdays when Americans go the polls to throw the bums out or keep the other bums from getting in. When you're managing a campaign or running a political committee, even though you're not the candidate, you feel like your life too is in the hands of the voters.

You always remember your first (campaign) the most -- and mine was Connie Mack's 1988 run to replace Lawton Chiles. Mack was called the loser on national TV by about 10:30 - but the pundits were wrong. A 35,000 vote gap at midnight narrowed to about 5000 early in the morning -- and then absentees kicked in to give Connie the win. ... A little recount exercise over eight days, and presto the race was over. Twelve years later, that recount record was broken by Bush/Gore.

In today's Blackberry, blog, YouTube, survey-centric world, the flow of information and analysis -- fact and fiction -- is radically different than the environment we faced in 1988, or in Mack's 1994 re-elect, or even in my two committee cycles (1998 and 2002). As the velocity of information increases, the ability of campaigns to control their own destiny diminishes.

If you're an outsider, that's probably for the good. If you're an insider -- whether a Republican or Democrat -- it's just one more big hurdle you face to drive message and try to find a way to make election day a success.

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This afternoon's Technology Daily P.M. Edition has some interesting election coverage. Michael Martinez reports on e-voting glitches; Heather Greenfield reports on the tight Virginia Senate race between George Allen and challenger James Webb; and David Hatch writes about Montana Republican Conrad Burns' struggle to keep his Senate seat.

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CNN's Situation Room blog will serve as home base for tonight's "E-lection Nite Blog Party." You can read more about the event and the bloggers participating here. The network plans on checking in with the battery of bloggers throughout the evening and much of the event will be streamed on CNN's premium Pipeline service. We'll be there too, blogging feverishly and finding fodder for Technology Daily coverage tomorrow.

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The following guest entry was written by James DeLong, a senior fellow at the Progress & Freedom Foundation.

Perhaps I grow more idealistic as I age, but my dominant impression of this election is the irresponsibility of both parties, which offer no serious policies or ideas of any sort. I hypothesize that this unpleasant state of affairs arises from the intersection of campaign finance "reform" with technology.

Reform forces candidates to collect small amounts of money or time from a large base, which is best motivated by slander, simplification, and direct economic payments in the form of pork or benefits. It also removes the party structure as a quality control over candidates. The growth of blogs and email and the multiplication of media channels, each forced to fill time and space with empty words, creates immense competing echo chambers.

So, repeal McCain-Feingold, and let the sober middle class reassert itself. What we are seeing is raw, unmediated democracy, and it isn't pretty. It is becoming ochlocracy.

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The negative ads and mudslinging in the Virginia senate race in the final weeks of the campaign certainly didn't dim turnout in the tech corridor in Loudoun County. Here's what voters had to say about it:

"There was a lot of dirty politics by both candidates," said Thomas Duke of Sterling. Despite his support for Bush in 2004, he voted for Webb because of Webb's status as a veteran and concern over the deficit.

Paul Hurwit supported Webb despite concern over comments Webb made 30 years ago regarding women in the military. "He seems to have evolved," said Hurwit, who has worked as a military consultant and is now upset about the handling of the war in Iraq.

Dave Dillard said he supported Allen despite his use of a racial slur in describing a Webb volunteer as well as later charges Allen used other racially charged language.

"I don't think he's a racist. He made amistake and was probably misinformed. It's just like I don't think John Kerry thinks the military is stupid. In this day and age I have a difficult time believing any of our politicians are racist," Dillard said.

Posted by Heather at 03:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Cross-posted at Beltway Blogroll

That's a good question on this Election Day -- and in an election year when people online have come to expect transparency in government, not to mention lots of campaign-related video.

The Center for Citizen Media has the state-by-state answer in a guest post by Lauren Gelman, deputy director of the Center for Internet and Society at Stanford University.

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Conservative RedState blogger Martin A. Knight had some strong words today (in bold red typeface). "Call me unrealistic, but I'm operating under the assumption that we're not losing a single seat unless we let ourselves lose," he said. The blog also started an open thread on voter experiences.

On Huffington Post, Blake Fleetwood warned that "in every election since 1988 there have been errors inflating Democratic numbers, but the pollmeisters have vowed to compensate for this unexplained factor this year." Be wary of phony polls, he cautioned, "which will be no more than quick telephone surveys of a small sample." As the British say, exit polls are "all in fun anyway."

Over at Right Wing News, John Hawkins reported on a teleconference with Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman. There have been "some dirty tricks" aimed at GOP candidates like an egging of Minnesota representative Gil Gutknecht's headquarters and poll workers being charged with faking votes from dead people in Tennessee. He also warned against paying attention to exit polls.

Matt Stoller at MyDD offered some advice to Democratic candidates in tight races where there are electoral problems. "You need to be prepared for your opponent to steal votes using a mix of local operatives and national legal expertise," he said. Read his tips here.

Meanwhile, BlogPulse reports that blogging stats are through the roof.

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Talking Points Memo is reporting that:

-- None of the electronic voting machines in Arlington Heights, Illinois were working this morning. That's House Republican Mark Kirk's district.
-- In Sullivan County, Tennessee, a voter reports that all three machines at a polling place were out of order.
-- A citizen in Tampa, Florida was told by election officials that her name was not on the list because the voter database had been "cleaned."
-- Long lines in Denver due to computer problems.

Users on the right-leaning Powerline blog's forum reported problems in various states, including Virginia, Maryland, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. The reports from Pennsylvania were mixed, with significant troubles in inner-city Philadelphia. Sen. Rick Santorum's campaign reports that turnout is high across the state but quite low in Philadelphia.

The AP reports that technical glitches delayed voting in dozens of Indiana and Ohio precincts, and Illinois officials were deluged with calls from voters saying election workers did not know how to operate new electronic equipment.

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The following guest entry was written by Janice Obuchowski, former head of the National Telecommunications and Information Administration and Bert Halprin, former chief of the FCC's Common Carrier Bureau. Obuchowski is president of consulting firm Freedom Technologies Inc. and Halprin is a partner at law firm Halprin Temple.

One of the most interesting changes which technology – and the Internet in particular – has brought to this election season is the multitude of blogs. Within the past two cycles, these have replaced traditional media as the prime source of news. While years ago, people marveled at watching the news in "real" time on 24/7 cable news channels, people today demand knowing things in "preview" time. There are already several "pre mortems" of congressional races available in blogdom based on analyses of absentee/advance precinct voting patterns

If, as some suspect, traditional polling organizations come out tainted from this election, we expect that bloggers will be setting up polling alternatives by 2008. The phenomenon of YouTube and other narrowcast video in general will grow, and present a growing challenge to over the air paid political advertising. In addition, a combination of the near universal availability of analytic tools and a way to communicate with the world may lead soon to a situation in which there are almost as many election analysts as actual voters.

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Want to know which campaigns are paying bloggers and how much they get? Curious about which bloggers put their money where their virtual mouths are by contributing to the campaigns they promote?

Beltway Blogroll has the answers:
-- "How Much Is That Blogger In Your Windows?"
-- "A Follow-Up On Campaign Bloggers"
-- "Blog Donors"

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The following guest entry was written by Michael Petricone, senior vice president for government affairs at the Consumer Electronics Association.

This is the election where our industry has taken center stage. Previously, campaigns have done online voter outreach. But suddenly, everyone – citizens, journalists, politicians – has jumped into the digital fray.

Online bloggers drive key races. Videos and commentary fly from e-mail to e-mail. Home-made political ads pop up on YouTube – and many are funny and brilliant.

Technology has democratized political speech. Sharing your opinions with millions once required affiliation with major newspaper or TV station. But now, all you need is passion, creativity, and an Internet connection. Welcome to our new digital world.

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Mixed Reviews for the Internet on Its First Presidential Election
New York Times 11/7/1996

Internet use in general was not up much more than usual on election night. However, the most well-known sites for election coverage were completely swamped, and users experienced delays getting information. MSNBC was so busy it was impossible to get through. PoliticsNow was knocked offline for a little bit. CNN's site had huge delays, and the NYT's site was infested with hackers.

(Thanks to Benton's Communications-related Headlines for the tip)

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The fate of all 435 House seats and 33 Senate seats as well as 36 races for governor and a slew of ballot measures around the country will be decided today... or if there are ballot-reading glitches, it might be more like tomorrow, the next day or next week. In any case, at some point in the very near future, American voters wil elect some new faces and perhaps new leadership on Capitol Hill. Democrats need 15 House seats or six Senate seats to form a majority, AP reports.

The most vulnerable GOP-held House seats include those in Arizona, Colorado, New York, Ohio and Iowa, according to the AP. Republican Reps. John Hostettler, Chris Chocola and Mike Sodrel of Indiana; Charles Taylor of North Carolina; Curt Weldon, Don Sherwood and Melissa Hart in the Keystone State; and Charles Bass of New Hampshire have been in especially challenging re-election races.

In the Senate, GOP incumbents like Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania and Ohio’s Mike DeWine were fighting furiously for their seats; Sens. Lincoln Chafee in Rhode Island and Montana's Conrad Burns somewhat less so, AP said. Stay tuned...

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The following guest entry was written by Julie Barko Germany, deputy director for the Institute for Politics, Democracy and the Internet.

Candidates rise and fall in public opinion, but this election season had one constant: YouTube is the media darling 2006. We e-mail YouTube videos to each other work. We read about the latest and funniest on our RSS feeds. We turn on the news and watch yet another segment on the YouTubization of politics.

Video is all the rage. But video evolved in a new way this season, and it didn’t happen on YouTube. It happened on your mobile phone. The DeVos for Governor campaign in Michigan launched a campaign ad designed for mobile phones from its very own .mobi Web address.

If you view www.devos.mobi on your Web browser at work, it is underwhelming. View the site on your mobile phone while you stand in line for coffee or wait for the train to work, and you access easy-to-read (on a two-inch screen) content, as well as a short, just-for-mobile campaign ad.

Sure, you can download your favorite political ad on your iPod from your Mac or PC and carry it around in your pocket just waiting for 30 seconds of boredom. Or you can watch real media in real time on your mobile phone. It’s immediate, and – most importantly – it’s interactive.

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The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee gave the National Republican Congressional Committee a wrist-slapping on Monday, asking the group to stop sending controversial prerecorded telephone messages to voters in states experiencing tight House races. The cease-and-desist letter, obtained by liberal blogger Joshua Micah Marshall at Talking Points Memo, said the computerized calls show "a pattern of willful noncompliance with FCC regulations." You can read the letter from the DCCC's Perkins Coie attorney here.

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N.Z. Bear at The Truth Laid Bear, a noted creator of cool blogging tools, has unveiled a page that will keep track of Tuesday's national races. Last year, Bear established a Blog for Relief campaign and a pretty fantastic donation-logging program on the heels of Hurricane Katrina. This is definitely worth bookmarking as the results come in...

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The following guest entry was written by Randolph May, president of the Free State Foundation.

As Election Day neared, and the campaign attack ads reached a crescendo, we convinced ourselves -- once again -- that this latest election must be the nastiest ever. That’s what the pundits tell us. And this year’s politicos do seem to exhibit a special relish in questioning the character of their erstwhile opponents. (Don’t get me wrong: There are more than enough characters to question!)

To keep the “republic-is-cratering-with-this-currrent-crop-of-would-be congresscritters” syndrome in proper perspective, I find myself returning to our Founding Fathers. In venerable Federalist No. 10, Madison warned that “factions” would divide “society into different interests” representing different political philosophies. Ambitious men in different parties would seek to arouse “mutual animosities” and “unfriendly passions,” even seek to “vex and oppress each other.” It has been thus throughout our history, except the mud-slinging partisans of Jefferson and Adams were not limited to 30 second spots in fashioning their broadsides.

This understanding of human nature’s dark side informed the Constitution the Founders bequeathed. The chief safeguard against those seeking to vex and oppress is our government of separated and diffused powers. This regime has worked pretty well -- so far.

But we should always remind ourselves that Madison, while acknowledging a “degree of depravity” in mankind, also suggested there are other qualities, which together he called “virtue,” which “justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence.” And then this conclusion: “Republican government presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.”

As we go to vote, with weighty issues at stake, we must hope we’re electing representatives whose virtues outweigh their vices.

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Reports of voting irregularities are expected on Election Day. VoterStory.org wants to know all the juicy polling place details. The site, created by Evolve Strategies, offers a free Web widget that any site can use for collecting stories about voting experiences. Voters simply fill in an online form with the details of their incident and the system sends an e-mail to a registered voter protection organization for follow-up. Pretty cool, eh?

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Top political Web sites from the 2004 elections have reemerged in 2006, according to Internet analytics firm Hitwise. Electoral-vote.com, which was the second most popular site among political watchers two years ago, has resurfaced at ninth place in Hitwise's "Lifestyle/Politics" category. Visits to the site have been increasing as poll results are updated.

Another flashback favorite gaining steam this campaign season is JibJab.com, Hitwise said. The parody site ranked 16th at the end of last week. It was the sixth most popular politics destination on the Web in 2004 when the animated video "This Land" spread far and wide.

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After polls that have many Congressional races too close too call, everyone is watching to see how the get out the vote effort goes Tuesday. It's an area that some argue led the Republican victories in 2004. Since then the Democrats have spent $8 million to catch up by buying data and other technology to target its voters.

The co-founder of Voter Action Network, a company that works with Democratic groups in 32 states, says he feels good about the ground operations Democrats have Tuesday.

"I think they're going to be in for a big surprise tomorrow," Mark Sullivan said.

Josh Holmes, a spokesman for the Republican National Committee says he believes Democrats have improved their operations, but he's "comfortable with where we are" heading into Election Day.

"I'm sure they have a formidable effort. It's one we're not discounting here," Holmes said.

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An article running in today's Technology Daily examines how the major television networks are utilizing Internet technologies to reach more viewers. I chatted with Michael Clemente, executive producer of ABC News Now and other TV bigwigs.

While it wasn’t included in the story, he had an interesting take on election night Web audiences. Clemente divided them into three categories: "floaters," who skim the surface of the news coverage; "swimmers," who review message boards and engage in other top-level participatory practices; and "divers," who want to be seen and heard by any means necessary (blogging, chatting, posting video, etc.).

Americans can say "'listen to me' without having to write a letter to Congress or march on Washington," he said.

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Here's the scoop on CNN's invitation-only "E-lection Nite Blog Party" at Tryst in Adams Morgan. The network has a pretty interesting recipe for Tuesday night fun (or chaos), which is scheduled to last into the wee hours of Wednesday morning.

Start out with equal parts lefty and righty political bloggers. Toss in free food, drink (plenty of caffeine) and Wi-Fi. Add roving video cameras to capture the drama as it unfolds. The network is planning interviews with bloggers as the returns come in (Internet reporters Jacki Schechner and Abbi Tatton will be on-hand). Much of the action will air uncut on CNN's premium online video service Pipeline (for those viewers who are especially voyeuristic).

There's no telling what might happen with all of these strong opinions (and egos) jammed into one room. Of course, removed from the Internet's near-anonymity, the bloggers may actually get along in person. Or not. Whatever happens, it will be interesting and we will be there to fill you in.

Here's a list of the bloggers expected to attend:

Right-leaning: Captain's Quarters, Ankle Biting Pundits, Outside the Beltway, Townhall, RedState, wizbang, Lashawn Barber's, Althouse, National Review, Powerline, Betsy's Page.

Left-leaning: Crooks and Liars, Eschaton, Think Progress, AmericaBlog, Washington Note, Firedoglake, MyDD, Huffington Post, Pam's House Blend, Mark Lamont Blog, Talk Left.

Lost Remote, Wonkette and FishbowlDC have been thrown in for good measure.

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More than a third of Americans now go online for their political news, according to a recent survey by AP and AOL news, and you can bet that all of them will be actively searching the Web during this election week.

With that in mind, National Journal's Technology Daily today launches our new blog, Tech Daily Dose. Our goal at the blog is to update subscribers and non-subscribers alike with the latest political information of interest to the technology community -- insights from our reporting, nuggets about tech issues and candidates in this year's election, and plenty more.

Two of our senior reporters, Heather Greenfield and Andrew Noyes, will provide the bulk of the campaign-related content over the next few days. I may post entries periodically as well. And we will have occasional guest posts from some of our sources in the tech industry.

We hope you'll bookmark Tech Daily Dose and add us to your RSS feeds, and we encourage you to comment at the blog and to send us your feedback about the site. You can reach me at dglover@nationaljournal.com.

Danny Glover, Managing Editor
National Journal's Technology Daily

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