Election Tech Tuesday: DNC Builds Out Digital Program

This Election Data Dispatch series explores emerging issues in elections technology and their relationship to the future of voting and civic engagement in America.

DNC Builds Out Digital Program

In early 2014, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) announced the launch of the technology initiative Project Ivy to create products aimed at increasing voter participation.

The project develops tools for the DNC and is charged with testing the efficacy of an idea before allocating resources to build it to scale. The group is making use of inherited data, code, and science from the Obama campaign in 2012 and is making the applications available to Democrats running in 2014.

Project Ivy has four components:

• A voter file and data warehouse.
• A robust analytics infrastructure.
• Direct-to-voter outreach and marketing tools.
• The cultivation of further technological innovations through training.

Project Ivy is working with the DNC’s Voter Expansion Project to develop the Arbor Project, which will use a data set rich in information on registered voters to build models that predict potential new Democratic voters. The collaborative effort launched the website IWillVote.com to provide information and important dates and rules associated with voting in each state, including:

• Dates for early voting and voter registration.
• Voter registration requirements.
• Important information for voters who might face particular rules for voting, such as students and former felons.
• Voter identification requirements.

These new technology projects will allow the DNC to harness data to help all eligible citizens register to vote and cast a ballot in the 2014 election.

The Election Tech Dispatch series recently covered the Republican National Committee’s new digital venture Para Bellum Labs.

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