From Deseret News archives:
Knock, knock — have you voted?
Workers to roust those who haven't hit polls yet
Utah Democrats and Republicans have worked for years to identify which voters most likely support their candidates. They track who votes early. They will be at polling places throughout Election Day noting who has come, and who has not.
And they have armies of tens of thousands of volunteers ready to call and plead for non-voters to go to the polls, and even offer rides. While the presidential and gubernatorial races may not be close here, the parties say their get-out-the-vote drives may tilt the balance in many key legislative and county races.
"We try to coordinate our efforts among the state, counties and candidates so that voters don't get inundated with auto calls all at the same time. That annoys voters. We don't want to do that. We want happy voters," said Kitty Dunn, political director of the Utah Republican Party.
Todd Taylor , executive director of the Utah Democratic Party, said, however, that a yet-to-vote supporter of Democrats in key precincts likely received three or so "persuasion calls" over the weekend before Election Day, received many mailed ads, had a "door hanger" ad telling them where to vote, and will likely receive up to three calls or visits on Election Day itself until he or she votes.
How do parties know who their supporters are — especially when three of every five Utah voters are officially "unaffiliated" and not registered to either party — and whether they have voted?
Taylor said Democrats, for example, have tracked for years "people whom we have reason to believe will support Democrats" because they "make a donation to someone in the party, were identified as a supporter in a telephone survey, were identified by candidates in door-to-door visits, or attended a precinct caucus."
Dunn said that over time, her party's lists have been scrubbed to the point that it even knows what professions or interests many key voters have — so it can "micro target" ads specifically for small groups to address their similar interests.
Of course, each party does not want to waste money persuading people who have already voted. So Taylor noted that as early voting proceeded this year — and up to a third of expected voters cast ballots early the lieutenant governor's office provided data to both parties daily about who had voted.
"So we could cross those people off our (get-out-the-vote) lists," Taylor said. "That saved us a fair amount of money and saved those who already voted from harassment."
