Time Flies

It is absolutely crazy to think that yesterday marked the beginning of the final week of Project, with next Wednesday being the last day of our internships. For me it's been a whirlwind of excitement and activity, easily the leading cause for why I am so shocked that the Project is nearly over.

Both yesterday and today involved more data analysis, and gave me the opportunity to learn a little more about how campaigns actually work.

By reviewing data from the 2012 election cycle, the Joyce campaign is able to analyze how many people are projected to vote at any one voting precinct. With a little more information about the voters themselves, where they live and who they are, the campaign can produce targeted messages that to constantly remind likely Joyce voters within certain precincts to get out and vote. Adding another layer to the strategy is the fact that precincts release updates of who has voted twice during the day of the election, giving all campaigns the ability to cross check those who they need to vote, with those who have already voted, so that they are able to continue to call those individuals who are yet to vote and encourage them to do so.

Yesterday and this morning, my job was to actually total up those numbers and determine how many of the likely Joyce voters came out to vote in the primary, and how many ended up not voting at all. Allowing me to crunch the numbers also gave me the opportunity to draw some of my own conclusions. Some precincts had large numbers potential voters who didn't come out to vote, likely because it was a primary which often times has lower turn out even when it's contested. Other precincts did hit the expected level of people coming out to vote, sometimes meaning the campaign did an impressive job of getting everyone to the polls, but also sometimes meaning there was a small number of likely Joyce voters in the area in the first place.

The next few projects I'm working on are centered around galvanizing support for the upcoming general election, and understanding what worked and didn't work with the primary campaign. I'm very excited, and am looking forward to having a chance to view some of the other campaign offices around the district.