Subject: Tech Clips
From: Andrew Brown <[email-masked]>
To: Andrew Brown <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 9 May 2016 13:12:55 -0700

TECH CLIPS
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Republicans using tailor-made tech on the campaign trail<http://themissouritimes.com/29170/republicans-using-tailor-made-tech-campaign-trail/>
Travis Zimpfer // The Missouri Times
If you follow Rick Stream on the campaign trail as he makes his bid for the 15th district state senate seat, you will notice that he is constantly checking his cell phone. When he has his face pointed down towards his screen, he is not looking at Facebook notifications or sending off texts. Instead, he has an application open that he hopes will propel him back into office.
That application should be familiar to almost any House Republican – Pebble.
Pebble was created in 2013 as the brainchild of multiple Republicans looking for a better software solution for campaigning after Missouri was largely left by the wayside.

Meet the San Francisco team behind Bernie Sander’s killer organizing app<http://www.recode.net/2016/5/2/11634146/bernie-sanders-organizing-app>
Dawn Chmielewski // Recode
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has no problem exciting the college crowd with his fiery rhetoric about political revolution.
An app called Hustle helped the campaign connect with these young supporters, and recruit volunteers, using text messages. Texting proved to be more effective at reaching supporters and prospective volunteers than, say, emails or phone calls. And it works well with everyone — not just millennials.

Inside Voter: The ‘Tinder for Voting’ App That Has Sean Rad’s Stamp of Approval<http://www.ibtimes.com/inside-voter-tinder-voting-app-has-sean-rads-stamp-approval-2362838>
Kerry Flynn // International Business Times
Despite Tinder's popularity among young people, presidential candidates this election season have been reluctant to embrace the matchmaking app as a campaign tool. But a new spin on the concept, borrowing the app's signature swipe function, has emerged as a way to educate and match voters to candidates aligned with the issues they care about.
Meet Voter, a new app that lets users swipe right for “yes” and left for “no” on issues just like they would for potential dates on Tinder.

Voter ID Laws May Have Actually Increased The Likelihood of Voter Fraud - By Hackers<http://www.fastcompany.com/3059524/voter-id-laws-may-have-actually-increased-the-likelihood-of-voter-fraud-by-hackers>
David Holmes // FastCompany
Over the past 16 years, only 10 cases of voter impersonation—out of 146 million registered voters—have ever been identified. And yet each election, a vocal political contingent made up primarily of Republicans complains about an alleged epidemic of voter fraud and impersonation. To combat it, they propose—and in many cases successfully pass—laws requiring voters to provide verification of their identity with an ID card, along with verbal confirmation of various pieces of personal data, before they are permitted to vote.
As election officials become more reliant on electronic databases, the potential for hackers to commit voter manipulation and election fraud has gone way up. But it’s these very voter ID laws that are partly to blame, despite legislators’ claims that they would make elections safer, according to Joseph Kiniry, CEO of Free and Fair, a provider of secure election services and systems.

Trump’s Big Win Is a Giant Setback for Data Crunchers<http://www.wired.com/2016/05/one-step-trump-one-giant-setback-data-crunchers/>
Issie Lapowsky // Wired
After the 2012 election, the prevailing theory was that data had been President Obama’s secret weapon against Mitt Romney. The campaign’s number crunchers sat in a separate space called The Cave, rubbing elbows with the likes of Alphabet Chairman Eric Schmidt and identifying key voters using an internal database named Narwhal. After Obama’s win, the occupants of the Cave got a lot of the credit, and strategists predicted that no candidate could ever win again without ample data on their side.
But those people were wrong—at least, Trump’s Indiana victory makes it look that way.

Facebook voting reminder extends to 35 states<http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2016/may/4/facebook-voting-reminder-extends-to-35-states/>
Morgan Lee // Washington Times
People across New Mexico are receiving an unsolicited reminder to register for primary elections in June as they log onto Facebook.
The social network attached the reminders to individual newsfeeds Tuesday and Wednesday as a May 10 registration deadline approaches. New Mexico votes in the final round of presidential primaries on June 7, while also narrowing the field of candidates for state Legislature and local offices.
Facebook has extended the registration drive to 35 states so far this year, skipping states with same-day registration. In New Mexico, the effort coincides with the introduction this year of online registration.

The GOP’s Lingering Campaign Tech Personnel Problem<http://www.campaignsandelections.com/campaign-insider/2721/the-gop-s-lingering-campaign-tech-personnel-problem>
Sean J. Miller // Campaigns & Elections
The presidential campaigns have fueled a D.C. tech boom this cycle but Republicans are struggling to capitalize. That’s because while GOP consultants have essentially closed the technology gap with their Democratic rivals, true parity remains elusive thanks to a dearth of personnel on the right ranging from data scientists to digital strategists.
“The plumbing is in place, the capabilities are there, but the campaigns still haven’t structurally solved [a personnel shortage],” Zac Moffatt, co-founder of Targeted Victory, said at this week’s CampaignTech East conference in Washington, DC.
The party continues to need everything from lawyers to approve content, to ad copy writers to data scientists, argued Moffatt.

Two Obama Tech-Reform Programs, 18F and the Presidential Innovation Fellows, Become Permanent in GSA<http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/05/18f-becomes-a-permanent-part-of-the-government/481260/>
Robinson Meyer // The Atlantic
On Tuesday, some of President Obama’s most sweeping reforms to how the government builds websites and other kinds of digital infrastructure moved much closer to becoming permanent.
It’s a big step for the White House, which since 2013 has erected several provisional institutions meant to avert another Healthcare.gov-style debacle. But it’s also a slightly wonky step, so before I get to the news itself, here’s why it’s important.
As far as day-to-day work of actually running a country goes, “government technology services” like Healthcare.gov are both critical and banal. Like going to the post office, they’re how the promise of government turns into lived experience. For many people, buying health insurance isn’t only one of the few interactions they’ll have with the government in a year. It’s also one of the biggest financial decisions they’ll make.