Questions for Grassroots Central developer welcome

[a2planet2]

This is Adam, developer of Grassroots Central at ronpaul2008.com... just released a new version tonight, please ask questions/comments/bugs etc... I'll watch this thread tonight and respond to all.

[JoshLowry]

Where'dja get the idea for calling it Grassroots Central?

:D :p ;)

In all seriousness, you guys have done an awesome job with the official site. Keep up the great work. I have no criticism.

[a2planet2]

Thanks Josh! Most people have quite a bit of criticism, though. So I'd like to address people's concerns, in a pubic setting such as this. Please, do your worst!

[ghemminger]

hey a2 I'll check it out

[Michigan11]

A guy in my meetup group who is a pricinct leader enjoyed using the chat at the RP official site to answer questions for those thinking about signing up, but he said it's no longer up there anymore. He said many were signing up after talking it about in the chat?????

[a2planet2]

A guy in my meetup group who is a pricinct leader enjoyed using the chat at the RP official site to answer questions for those thinking about signing up, but he said it's no longer up there anymore. He said many were signing up after talking it about in the chat?????

There were enough people in the chat room discussing smoking pot and Jews ruling the planet, that we decided it would be better if people must be registered and logged in to use it. We took it down for the time being and we'll put it back up when it's customized to be only for registered PL's but in the meantime we've been too busy working on the PL site to get the chat room suited for use again.

Stay tuned...

[a2planet2]

I get over 100 emails a day asking about the PL program, but now nobody wants to know anything about it? Well, OK, but I'm off the the bar if I don't hear anything soon...

[libertythor]

Where is this chat room? I am logged in right now.

[a2planet2]

It was hosted on knocknoc or something... the Terra Eclipse people set it up. I don't know if it even still exists. I think Knocknoc (knocknok?) users were on it but I don't know.

[JimInNY]

Suggestion about the PL program:

It needs to be explained much better on the outside of the sign up page. I didn't sign up for quite a while because I wasn't sure what it involved or if I could do it.

[ghemminger]

It was hosted on knocknoc or something... the Terra Eclipse people set it up. I don't know if it even still exists. I think Knocknoc (knocknok?) users were on it but I don't know.

Isigned up recently and am just starting to use it
You might be jumping the gun a little - there is a lot of history between official campaign and grassroots:)

[sharpsteve2003]

I saw the page was updated and it looks great.

My question is can we add someone that is not in our precinct but a Ron Paul voter? Like friends family coworkers etc that may live in other places.

[ghemminger]

Suggestion about the PL program:

It needs to be explained much better on the outside of the sign up page. I didn't sign up for quite a while because I wasn't sure what it involved or if I could do it.

Yes Jim you might want to check with the campaign we have had limited communication with them because of FEC concerns and potential violations - we help raise money for PACs on this sight... Are you official HQ?

[libertythor]

Isigned up recently and am just starting to use it
You might be jumping the gun a little - there is a lot of history between official campaign and grassroots:)

Welcome back ghemminger.

[ghemminger]

This might also be an unusaul time to get everyone's attention - so many are focused on the debates

[a2planet2]

Suggestion about the PL program:

It needs to be explained much better on the outside of the sign up page. I didn't sign up for quite a while because I wasn't sure what it involved or if I could do it.

This is a very good suggestion. We have people at the office who are supposed to be writing copy for the site, but are often tied up with doing letters, mailers, etc.

Originally we overdrew the "this is a big responsibility" thing on the front page, and people were not signing up because they felt like they were not up to the task... now we have the opposite problem, people who think managing a precinct is just a lit drop.

Will see about getting some better text on the front page soon as possible.

[slantedview]

i think this is a good topic, but many people are off in bed already. maybe try posting again tomorrow or just bump this thread then :)

[ghemminger]

This is a very good suggestion. We have people at the office who are supposed to be writing copy for the site, but are often tied up with doing letters, mailers, etc.

Originally we overdrew the "this is a big responsibility" thing on the front page, and people were not signing up because they felt like they were not up to the task... now we have the opposite problem, people who think managing a precinct is just a lit drop.

Will see about getting some better text on the front page soon as possible.

there is much you can do to promote this - many I've talked to feel it is too late to PL for Feb 5th states - too little too late philosophy

[a2planet2]

Isigned up recently and am just starting to use it
You might be jumping the gun a little - there is a lot of history between official campaign and grassroots:)

Yeah, that is one thing we are trying to correct. I was grassroots for 6 months before the campaign brought me on board and I know pretty well the grassroots' grievances... but when you see it from the other side, the thousands of calls and emails they get, you realize that the friction between the grassroots and the campaign has been and still is a big drain on both. The Precinct Leader program aims to mend that by offering a tool whereby the grassroots can still mobilize on its own but keep in contact with the campaign and be guided toward the most important activity, that is, getting out the vote, making use of our resources.

[a2planet2]

I saw the page was updated and it looks great.

My question is can we add someone that is not in our precinct but a Ron Paul voter? Like friends family coworkers etc that may live in other places.

I wish, but there are security issues here. If people could add others outside their precinct, malicious users could load up our database with bad data. So long as Precinct Leaders are confined to their own precinct, the worst anyone can do is botch up their own precinct. Also, there are database issues... already just about every page runs like 5 database queries on large tables of data and if every user was generated info over multiple precincts/counties/states it would slow down the server.

[ghemminger]

Yeah, that is one thing we are trying to correct. I was grassroots for 6 months before the campaign brought me on board and I know pretty well the grassroots' grievances... but when you see it from the other side, the thousands of calls and emails they get, you realize that the friction between the grassroots and the campaign has been and still is a big drain on both. The Precinct Leader program aims to mend that by offering a tool whereby the grassroots can still mobilize on its own but keep in contact with the campaign and be guided toward the most important activity, that is, getting out the vote, making use of our resources.

Awesome A2 I'm glad they brought you on. And I have friends on both sides...
It sounds like they are giving you authorization to cordinate witht the grassroots.

[jblosser]

When are we going to get voting history?

Like I keep saying, I am trying to act as organizer for one of the reddest counties in the coutry, and we need that data to know the 3 or 5 soft targets in each precinct so we can get their help.

Printing/merging two lists for all my people isn't good for me or you guys, it breaks the single form model.

[pilby]

i think it would be great if PL's could find out who neighboring PL's are and be able to interact with them. even possibly on the state level. i know it's already built in to see others in the same county, but my meetup group spans three counties and i have no idea who in the group is signed up (and i can coordinate with) and whom i need to harass

[a2planet2]

Yes Jim you might want to check with the campaign we have had limited communication with them because of FEC concerns and potential violations - we help raise money for PACs on this sight... Are you official HQ?

I am on official HQ staff; I work at the national office. FEC regulations are not an issue; the program is completely legal and I'm not gagged by any laws from helping people make use of our website.

[ghemminger]

A2 we are just starting to scratch the service of this in my area - keep up the good work?

[sharpsteve2003]

I've been promoting the heck out of the precinct leader program. Glad to see you reaching out as there is lots of confusion between delegates and precinct leaders or captains. seems that the title is used by GOP and others and people are not understanding this is for the Ron Paul campaign.

Also people think this is just to target Republicans for the primary and I try and explain that this can be used way beyond then to help Ron Paul. I refer you to a couple post I have put up.

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/28957

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=98301

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/28954

[nullvalu]

I just logged in (hadn't been on in a week) and it looks like you already did the only thing I was going to suggest... to download in spreadsheet format. Awesome. Great work on the site, Adam.

[ghemminger]

I am on official HQ staff; I work at the national office. FEC regulations are not an issue; the program is completely legal and I'm not gagged by any laws from helping people make use of our website.

Yey! I wish we had you 4 months ago - you could have made the difference in this election A2

[sharpsteve2003]

MODERATOR WE NEED A STICKY ON THIS ASAP. PLEASE and THANK YOU!

[Michigan11]

There were enough people in the chat room discussing smoking pot and Jews ruling the planet, that we decided it would be better if people must be registered and logged in to use it. We took it down for the time being and we'll put it back up when it's customized to be only for registered PL's but in the meantime we've been too busy working on the PL site to get the chat room suited for use again.

Stay tuned...

Thanks for taking the time to answer. That makes sense.

[ghemminger]

I've been promoting the heck out of the precinct leader program. Glad to see you reaching out as there is lots of confusion between delegates and precinct leaders or captains. seems that the title is used by GOP and others and people are not understanding this is for the Ron Paul campaign.

Also people think this is just to target Republicans for the primary and I try and explain that this can be used way beyond then to help Ron Paul. I refer you to a couple post I have put up.

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/28957

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?t=98301

http://www.dailypaul.com/node/28954


Good Point! It would be great to know that we can use this way beyond a Ron Paul GOP run

[ghemminger]

A2 - CAN you set up daily update - communication thread hear at the forums? It would do wonders.....

[a2planet2]

there is much you can do to promote this - many I've talked to feel it is too late to PL for Feb 5th states - too little too late philosophy

I'm making a video in the office tomorrow about this. Yes, it's really short notice. But even at this stage, it's better that people ID their voters before seeking their vote. Voter ID saves enormous time, energy, and material resources. Even if people can't ID every voter in their precinct, some is better than none and targeting a few voters is better than taking potshots at many.

For Feb 5th states, I'd recommend running through the phone list for voter ID as fast as possible, skip door-to-door voter ID and targeted phone calls (the advocacy scripts aren't up yet anyway) and just doing calls/door-to-door campaigning toward all voters in your precinct whose minds aren't made up.

The most important thing to remember is that some 33% of voters will vote without having ever made up their minds, and some 70% of people that agree with Dr. Paul still won't even vote. So targeting those people that will actually vote is the #1 way to win the election in your precinct.

Also, for anti-vote-fraud purposes, having a sense of voters in your precinct will really give you leverage for a legitimate claim of ballot fraud, if you know how many Paul votes were expected.

[sharpsteve2003]

I wish, but there are security issues here. If people could add others outside their precinct, malicious users could load up our database with bad data. So long as Precinct Leaders are confined to their own precinct, the worst anyone can do is botch up their own precinct. Also, there are database issues... already just about every page runs like 5 database queries on large tables of data and if every user was generated info over multiple precincts/counties/states it would slow down the server.

Could we send info for these people to county or state coordinator that could enter it? I was thinking that way the person whose precinct they live in would then be able to see that they were a supporter and then could check with them to make sure they have info and whatnot to maybe even help out. I just see how this could bring everyone together and really get the grass roots going stronger than it already is. If a county coordinator was able to see every Ron Paul voter they could use that to bring in volunteers and work with meet ups and the like.

[a2planet2]

Awesome A2 I'm glad they brought you on. And I have friends on both sides...
It sounds like they are giving you authorization to cordinate witht the grassroots.

Thanks Ghemminger, the hope is that this system unites the entire campaign, grassroots and offiical alike.

[ghemminger]

I'm making a video in the office tomorrow about this. Yes, it's really short notice. But even at this stage, it's better that people ID their voters before seeking their vote. Voter ID saves enormous time, energy, and material resources. Even if people can't ID every voter in their precinct, some is better than none and targeting a few voters is better than taking potshots at many.

For Feb 5th states, I'd recommend running through the phone list for voter ID as fast as possible, skip door-to-door voter ID and targeted phone calls (the advocacy scripts aren't up yet anyway) and just doing calls/door-to-door campaigning toward all voters in your precinct whose minds aren't made up.

The most important thing to remember is that some 33% of voters will vote without having ever made up their minds, and some 70% of people that agree with Dr. Paul still won't even vote. So targeting those people that will actually vote is the #1 way to win the election in your precinct.

Also, for anti-vote-fraud purposes, having a sense of voters in your precinct will really give you leverage for a legitimate claim of ballot fraud, if you know how many Paul votes were expected.

WOW - A2 this is fricking HUGE - I hope you have this shorthand explanation on the website for people with the Feb 5th deadline - I will start promoting it.

We've had a lot of posters promoting the PL program - you could help take it to a whole different level...:)

[a2planet2]

When are we going to get voting history?

Like I keep saying, I am trying to act as organizer for one of the reddest counties in the coutry, and we need that data to know the 3 or 5 soft targets in each precinct so we can get their help.

Printing/merging two lists for all my people isn't good for me or you guys, it breaks the single form model.

I discussed this with the campaign, and the feeling is that voter history is a lousy predictor. Many, many experts have said that the #1 reason people vote is simply because they are asked to--by family, friends, people with common interests. We don't want to write off people who haven't voted before, we don't want to write off people who voted for Bush or McCain in 2000, we don't want to assume that people who didn't vote in recent years won't vote now. We want Precinct Leaders to talk to all voters in their precinct, find out whether or not they plan to vote, find out who they plan to vote for, find out if we can convince them to vote for Dr. Paul.

The earlier versions had all kinds of RNC micro-targeting data and even those seemed questionable. We want our precinct leaders to FIND OUT who is going to vote and who is going to vote for Paul, and we can't rely on RNC data, least of all voter history.

[sharpsteve2003]

The chat will be very useful when it gets back up. I was logging on there just to try and answer ?'s. since it's been gone I've been trying to answer questions in other forums and where ever I can. I've even been doing searches to help leaders find their precincts. Being I'm in MI and our primary is over I've been waiting to start hitting the people up, but plan on getting out and canvassing again as soon as this deep freeze passes and they've had a little break from politics.

[goretti]

Is there a way to consolidate our own posts? Read my last post and you'll understand why I would really like to know, Thanks!

[ghemminger]

Thanks Ghemminger, the hope is that this system unites the entire campaign, grassroots and offiical alike.

I've been around for awile - if you can pull this together A2 - (harness the incredible - boots on the ground - grassroots support) RP has - Rp might just win this thing....:D Keep pushing - Some great minds on this forum - listen to them...

[a2planet2]

i think it would be great if PL's could find out who neighboring PL's are and be able to interact with them. even possibly on the state level. i know it's already built in to see others in the same county, but my meetup group spans three counties and i have no idea who in the group is signed up (and i can coordinate with) and whom i need to harass

Sounds like a good idea to me. We just did a big overhaul today and I anticipate being tied up for the next few days with bugfixes, but this is definitely something I'd like to implement in the future. Problem from a programming standpoint is there is no easy way to tell which counties neighbor others, but maybe I can figure out a solution in time.

[UnitedWeStand]

I'd just like to say that I am so glad they have brought you aboard. You're writings are so important for people just learning about Ron Paul for the first time. There are of course thousands of supporters who do not frequent this board.

My one criticism of the pl info is that the map of my precinct was inaccurate. I just got shown an almost full map of my entire city. Id love to see the specific streets highlighted, though I know that as a pl I have signed up to take most of the responsibility upon myself to research my precinct. Thanks again!

[sharpsteve2003]

I discussed this with the campaign, and the feeling is that voter history is a lousy predictor. Many, many experts have said that the #1 reason people vote is simply because they are asked to--by family, friends, people with common interests. We don't want to write off people who haven't voted before, we don't want to write off people who voted for Bush or McCain in 2000, we don't want to assume that people who didn't vote in recent years won't vote now. We want Precinct Leaders to talk to all voters in their precinct, find out whether or not they plan to vote, find out who they plan to vote for, find out if we can convince them to vote for Dr. Paul.

The earlier versions had all kinds of RNC micro-targeting data and even those seemed questionable. We want our precinct leaders to FIND OUT who is going to vote and who is going to vote for Paul, and we can't rely on RNC data, least of all voter history.

I agree completely. I plan on hitting every house in my precinct. My primary has already happened. I'm kinda glad I live in a trailer park because all the homes are so close together and my whole precinct is my trailer park. Even if they are not registered I can give them a voter registration form to fill out so they will be ready in NOV to vote For Ron Paul.

[sharpsteve2003]

I'd just like to say that I am so glad they have brought you aboard. You're writings are so important for people just learning about Ron Paul for the first time. There are of course thousands of supporters who do not frequent this board.

My one criticism of the pl info is that the map of my precinct was inaccurate. I just got shown an almost full map of my entire city. Id love to see the specific streets highlighted, though I know that as a pl I have signed up to take most of the responsibility upon myself to research my precinct. Thanks again!

usually if you go to your county's web site you can find a map for precincts. I have found several for others just by googling the county name and voter precinct map. ex: NYC Voter precinct map

doing this I am usually able to find the correct maps. some are easier than others.
for my precinct once I knew the boundries i went on google earth and printed out the map on there and could see every house. Depending on how big your precinct is this could or could not be useful. mine is small.

[CriticalThinker]

This is Adam, developer of Grassroots Central at ronpaul2008.com... just released a new version tonight, please ask questions/comments/bugs etc... I'll watch this thread tonight and respond to all.

I am a developer as well - looooooooooooooooonnnnngggg time

If you ever get "stuck" - feel free to contact me.

C++/C#/Java/.NET/XML<monster>/DBXML/BLA BLA BLA :)

[a2planet2]

A2 - CAN you set up daily update - communication thread hear at the forums? It would do wonders.....

Probably would, but I'm kinda notorious for not being responsive.... I get like 100 bug reports a day, it wouldn't be fun and people would get mad when I don't answer... I'll try to keep in touch though. But the best way is to just sign up; the campaign can issue message from the PL system to all registered PLs.

[a2planet2]

I'd just like to say that I am so glad they have brought you aboard. You're writings are so important for people just learning about Ron Paul for the first time. There are of course thousands of supporters who do not frequent this board.

My one criticism of the pl info is that the map of my precinct was inaccurate. I just got shown an almost full map of my entire city. Id love to see the specific streets highlighted, though I know that as a pl I have signed up to take most of the responsibility upon myself to research my precinct. Thanks again!

Thanks for the kind words. As for the maps, the problem is that the RNC geodata varies in quality... sometimes it's street-level, other times it's all the way out to Zip code. Having an accurately outlined precinct would be awesome but it's just not feasable with the data that we have.

[jblosser]

I discussed this with the campaign, and the feeling is that voter history is a lousy predictor. Many, many experts have said that the #1 reason people vote is simply because they are asked to--by family, friends, people with common interests. We don't want to write off people who haven't voted before, we don't want to write off people who voted for Bush or McCain in 2000, we don't want to assume that people who didn't vote in recent years won't vote now. We want Precinct Leaders to talk to all voters in their precinct, find out whether or not they plan to vote, find out who they plan to vote for, find out if we can convince them to vote for Dr. Paul.

You keep saying you don't want us to write off Bush voters. That is not what I'm talking about, at all. If I ignored Bush voters, I'd be ignoring 99% of the voters in my precinct. And we definitely aren't ignoring people who don't vote -- those are some of the easiest ones!

We are talking to everyone. We know what we're doing. We just want to talk to the soft targets first SO WE CAN GET THEM HELPING US. We have thousands of voters in most of these precincts, we need more than one person working per precinct.

We *have* the voter history data, and talking to these people first works. They flip easily and help us talk to others. We just would rather not have to do merge lists or risk confusing people by sending them to the precinct captain site for some data and us for the rest.


The earlier versions had all kinds of RNC micro-targeting data and even those seemed questionable. We want our precinct leaders to FIND OUT who is going to vote and who is going to vote for Paul, and we can't rely on RNC data, least of all voter history.

And yet you include a variant of the RNC party index score?

[a2planet2]

I agree completely. I plan on hitting every house in my precinct. My primary has already happened. I'm kinda glad I live in a trailer park because all the homes are so close together and my whole precinct is my trailer park. Even if they are not registered I can give them a voter registration form to fill out so they will be ready in NOV to vote For Ron Paul.

Whoa, hold on a second, SharpSteve! I'm from Michigan, and I hope you know that Michigan's county conventions are February 7th! There is NOTHING more important in Michigan right now than getting a list of precinct delegates from your county clerk's office and writing them and doing whatever you can to get them to support Ron Paul! ALL of the other campaigns are assuming Michigan is a done deal for Romney so NONE of them are paying any attention, but the reality is, regardless of the primary, the Michigan Republican Party can set whatever rules it wants!

You might recall that the national GOP instituted a rule cutting Michigan's national delegates in half, and you might know that all of the campaigns have said that their delegates will vote at the national convention to seat all of Michigan's delegates. That's the thing! REGARDLESS of current party rules, the delegates at the county convention can vote to change county convention rules and state delegates can vote to change state convention rules and national delegates can change national convention rules! The primaries and caucuses are NOTHING MORE THAN AN INDICATION OF WHAT REPUBLICAN VOTERS WANT. If all the precinct delegates at the county convention vote to send Ron Paul delegates to the state convention, and state convention delegates vote at the state convention to change the rules such that national delegates are not bound to vote for their district's primary winner, then the Primary is essentially nullified.

Sound crazy? Remember, the Republican Party is a private organization, it is not an element of government--it can do whatever it wants. The state party has authority to set state party rules. Some states bind their delegates for 2 rounds of voting at the national convention, other states, none!

So, don't worry about November, worry about February 7! And the state convention, which is the 15th and 16th! We can still win delegates IF and ONLY IF we try.

Iowa is not over, New Hampshire is not over, Michigan is not over, South Carolina is not over... and you can bet if Ron Paul won any of those states, the other candidates would be setting up the conventions for their favor so there is NO REASON why we should not, especially since the other campaigns are basically ignoring these events! If you haven't already, REGISTER REPUBLICAN TODAY and PLAN TO GO TO YOUR COUNTY CONVENTION!!!

[a2planet2]

usually if you go to your county's web site you can find a map for precincts. I have found several for others just by googling the county name and voter precinct map. ex: NYC Voter precinct map

doing this I am usually able to find the correct maps. some are easier than others.
for my precinct once I knew the boundries i went on google earth and printed out the map on there and could see every house. Depending on how big your precinct is this could or could not be useful. mine is small.

I'm working on a site feature whereby state coordinators can post links that will display for new signups in their state with links to pages of precinct maps...

[sharpsteve2003]

Whoa, hold on a second, SharpSteve! I'm from Michigan, and I hope you know that Michigan's county conventions are February 7th! There is NOTHING more important in Michigan right now than getting a list of precinct delegates from your county clerk's office and writing them and doing whatever you can to get them to support Ron Paul!

Oh we are working hard on the delegates issue as a matter of fact we have a meet up dealing with this tomorrow. I was just talking canvassing for voters, which for the time being I'm not doing immediately. I think most people need a bit of a break from politics till I concentrate on them again. But yes we are all over the delegates right now.

[Thunderbolt]

When I downloaded my pages I noticed that all I had were Republican voters. Now, this makes sense for my state because now it is too late to get any Inds or Dems - that deadline is past, but for the states that do allow all to vote are you giving them numbers to all voters?

I have found so far that I have better luck with Dems and Inds than Reps in getting them to vote for Ron Paul, so don't leave them out.

I also waited a long time to sign up because I had no idea what the program entailed.

Glad to see you are going to have a spreadsheet download. Was going to suggest that.

I would suggest you write a lovely email, explain simply and clearly what you are doing, how this works and then send it out to all supporters. Do this very quickly. I have seen things about the program but nothing explained well and so I ignored them all. I am already working inside the GOP party. I thought that was what you were talking about.

Can't think of anything else. Thanks for coming by.

[Rhys]

Hey Adam! My concern would be that until you told me (i'm in A2 too) I had no idea what a leader even was... that was a week before primaries here. I still think most people don't know and an email could go a long way to explaining.

p.s- adam works so hard, i dropped by the a2 hq on a sunday to see if anyone was there for slimjims, and he was there cause he'd been working like 48 straight hours

[sharpsteve2003]

When I downloaded my pages I noticed that all I had were Republican voters. Now, this makes sense for my state because now it is too late to get any Inds or Dems - that deadline is past, but for the states that do allow all to vote are you giving them numbers to all voters?

I have found so far that I have better luck with Dems and Inds than Reps in getting them to vote for Ron Paul, so don't leave them out.


One thing I found that can help with contact info for houses not on your lists for future is yellowpages.com. You can do a reverse lookup using address. if you don't put in a number just the street name you will get all the listed numbers with the address on the street and then compare to lists to see what is missing. again this is all depending on how close to primaries and delegate elections and whatever other first priorities you have in your area. I Plan on doing that once our delegate drive and elections are over. just another source for free to find info for houses not on the list. I carry voter registration forms with me for those that are not registered. As in any list not all entires are correct. people move or change their numbers and thats part of what we can do to help further make the list accurate.

[a2planet2]

You keep saying you don't want us to write off Bush voters. That is not what I'm talking about, at all. If I ignored Bush voters, I'd be ignoring 99% of the voters in my precinct. And we definitely aren't ignoring people who don't vote -- those are some of the easiest ones!

We are talking to everyone. We know what we're doing. We just want to talk to the soft targets first SO WE CAN GET THEM HELPING US. We have thousands of voters in most of these precincts, we need more than one person working per precinct.

We *have* the voter history data, and talking to these people first works. They flip easily and help us talk to others. We just would rather not have to do merge lists or risk confusing people by sending them to the precinct captain site for some data and us for the rest.

From a coding standpoint, it'd be really difficult to translate the voter history into something understandable particularly walk lists where people depend on the list being organized street-wise.

And yet you include a variant of the RNC party index score?[/QUOTE]

The RNC party index is one simple number, versus voter history which is like 10 numbers for 10 elections, very difficult to format for intelligible display and it only indicates that they voted, not who they voted for.

[a2planet2]

When I downloaded my pages I noticed that all I had were Republican voters. Now, this makes sense for my state because now it is too late to get any Inds or Dems - that deadline is past, but for the states that do allow all to vote are you giving them numbers to all voters?

I have found so far that I have better luck with Dems and Inds than Reps in getting them to vote for Ron Paul, so don't leave them out.


The filtering depends on the state. Some states don't have partisan registration at all, and in that case all voters are displayed. For party-registration states, the filtering depends on when the deadline is and what the rules are... some states are Republican-only, other states allow Republican and independent voters... some states the deadline isn't passed so all voters are on the list. State coordinators can change the party filter rule for their state, too.

[a2planet2]

All right... heading back into the fray. More features, bugfixes, to come tomorrow, for sure! Also, there'll be a video of me going over the site and various features and other things.

TTFN,

A2P

[sharpsteve2003]

bump for more questions wish this could get a sticky so people can get more informed.

[Soccrmastr]

Suggestion: Don't introduce the program always saying "It is a GREAT responsibility, which takes a lot of effort" etc.

Its what originally had me not signing up. I was worried if I signed up and didn't do much people would be angry. But even if someone does minimal work, they can still be an effective precinct captain. Instead say "Everyone can be a Precinct Captain!" something like that.

[gregb]

Sounds like a good idea to me. We just did a big overhaul today and I anticipate being tied up for the next few days with bugfixes, but this is definitely something I'd like to implement in the future. Problem from a programming standpoint is there is no easy way to tell which counties neighbor others, but maybe I can figure out a solution in time.

I probably could arrange something - if you want.

[RobS]

Whoa, hold on a second, SharpSteve! I'm from Michigan, and I hope you know that Michigan's county conventions are February 7th! There is NOTHING more important in Michigan right now than getting a list of precinct delegates from your county clerk's office and writing them and doing whatever you can to get them to support Ron Paul! ALL of the other campaigns are assuming Michigan is a done deal for Romney so NONE of them are paying any attention, but the reality is, regardless of the primary, the Michigan Republican Party can set whatever rules it wants!

You might recall that the national GOP instituted a rule cutting Michigan's national delegates in half, and you might know that all of the campaigns have said that their delegates will vote at the national convention to seat all of Michigan's delegates. That's the thing! REGARDLESS of current party rules, the delegates at the county convention can vote to change county convention rules and state delegates can vote to change state convention rules and national delegates can change national convention rules! The primaries and caucuses are NOTHING MORE THAN AN INDICATION OF WHAT REPUBLICAN VOTERS WANT. If all the precinct delegates at the county convention vote to send Ron Paul delegates to the state convention, and state convention delegates vote at the state convention to change the rules such that national delegates are not bound to vote for their district's primary winner, then the Primary is essentially nullified.

Sound crazy? Remember, the Republican Party is a private organization, it is not an element of government--it can do whatever it wants. The state party has authority to set state party rules. Some states bind their delegates for 2 rounds of voting at the national convention, other states, none!

So, don't worry about November, worry about February 7! And the state convention, which is the 15th and 16th! We can still win delegates IF and ONLY IF we try.

Iowa is not over, New Hampshire is not over, Michigan is not over, South Carolina is not over... and you can bet if Ron Paul won any of those states, the other candidates would be setting up the conventions for their favor so there is NO REASON why we should not, especially since the other campaigns are basically ignoring these events! If you haven't already, REGISTER REPUBLICAN TODAY and PLAN TO GO TO YOUR COUNTY CONVENTION!!!

How about sending out an email to all the Michigan PL's then? I am sure a lot of them have no idea about this.

I would love to see a way for people from other states/areas to be able to get merged into anothers precinct and do phone calls for them. This would be a great way to harness those people who do not like getting out there and canvassing, or whose primary has already passed. They would of course have to be able to update info on the site so that people don't get called more than once.

[RobS]

bump

[nc4rp]

first of all, i would put the following text in Bold or increase the font:

Thank you for becoming a Ron Paul Precinct Leader! As precinct leader, your goal is to win your precinct for Dr. Paul.

It's all about turn out, turn out, turn out!

Victory is accomplished through a sequence of three simple (but quite long and involved) steps. Ready?

but i guess thats just symantecs. great work!

[jblosser]

The RNC party index is one simple number, versus voter history which is like 10 numbers for 10 elections, very difficult to format for intelligible display and it only indicates that they voted, not who they voted for.

I have multiple samples I can give you that work fine for us.

Here's one row from the format I use in my own precinct; it's using numeric codes which isn't ideal, but it's only because we haven't done the work to convert these to alphas yet.

Age,LastName,FirstName,Area,Phone,Address,Dir,Stre et,Suff,Apt,G06,P06,G04,P04,G02,P02,G00,P00,Inf,L, T,G,W,GOP,$
49,SMITH,JOHN,555,1234567,1234,,MAIN,ST,,V,,,ED,V, ,V,R,40,32,16,15,33,31,20

[ASayre]

For CA, since the registration deadline has passed,

Is it possible to have it show just registered Republicans?

[cjhowe]

The RNC party index is one simple number, versus voter history which is like 10 numbers for 10 elections, very difficult to format for intelligible display and it only indicates that they voted, not who they voted for.

output it to csv or excel like you were doing before. Let those walking determine what is important. Let those walking format their data. Let the local areas create templates for what's important in their areas and have their walker copy and paste the info into the template.

States with closed primaries will want to avoid wasting their time with Democrats. States with crazy convention rules may have certain strategies that would be more beneficial. There's no possible way that you get a 44 state strategy worked out in so little time. Provide the data, let the local areas fit it to their needs. (county and county specific voter identification number might be beneficial for those who might be tracking local balloting initiatives)