An email from an Atlanta RP meetup member in Iowa

paulette

Member
Joined
Dec 4, 2007
Messages
291
On Jan 4, 2008 10:51 AM

Dear all:



I sincerely regret to inform you that today, the GOTV day, the biggest day of the whole Iowa campaign for the 300 students up here, was completely destroyed--and the circumstances point towards a deliberate sabotage.



We were told from the very beginning that all of our hard work would be nought if we didn't hit Iowa hard on January 3rd.



Our job? Call every Ron Paul supporter in the state (our numbers were bigger than Huckabee's), man as many precincts as possible, drive voters around, pick people up, get them back home, check voters off as they come in, &c., &c..



We were told to be ready to leave camp at 9 a.m.

...



We were ready.



But then at 2:30 in the morning, all the camp leaders received a phone call that the database the Des Moines office put together of all our phone banking and door-to-door canvassing was totally scrambled, jumbled, and even partly deleted. All the data was scattered and completely jumbled. Missing phone numbers. Missing precincts. A big box of random data. Thousands and thousands of voters.



The original file was supposed to have broken all voters down into counties and precincts. Didn't happen.



Each page was supposed to be correlated with precinct captains and chairmen. Didn't happen.



We were looking at a day of turning out over 17,000 voters. We maybe called 300.



We picked up nobody.



We manned no caucuses.



...



So what happened?



We were told we'd have the numbers by 11 a.m.



Then noon.



Then 2.



Then 3.



Then 4.



We finally got the numbers around 4:30. We couldn't even print them. A couple camp leader floored it to a Kinko's and printed them out. We got started calling at 5:15. Caucusers were supposed to show up at 6:30.



I have received word that one particular person is responsible for all this.



I've also heard word that this is not true. That's why I won't release the name.



In any case, the database the Des Moines office was supposed to be compiling was completely compromised, either technically or personally. The word used to describe the master file was "unusable."



I don't know what to make of this, but everyone here is super despondent.



b Hodges
 
Last edited:
Too late to b*** and moan guys. The votes are in, we have to move on. If it can be proven, press criminal charges, otherwise just keep on keepin on.
 
If this is true it's truly unfortunate. I can't believe no one kept a back up of the database. Even a partial one that was usable. Ugh.
 
How can a database be unusable? Even if you just had a phone number it would be fine.
 
If this is true, the person in charge that didn't make backups and store them in multiple locations should not be allowed to be in charge ofanything ever again. Backups of a critical system like that is RULE #1.
 
Dear Campaign,
Any effort at maintaining a database that is not duplicated and regularly backed up is for naught. As a DBA, I volunteer my services to ensure that any campaign databases are recoverable and duplicated for safety.



SO...Who would I send such a note to that it would actually get some where.
 
Okay, why the fuck would this information be kept on a computer? It should have been printed, on paper, so that it was tamper proof. That's ridiculous.
 
Too late to b*** and moan guys. The votes are in, we have to move on. If it can be proven, press criminal charges, otherwise just keep on keepin on.

He's not 'bitchin' and moaning', he's airing a serious issue!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, up here in N.H., I heard a phonebanker say the other day that phone numbers weren't matching up with the names on the call list... that they were mixed around a bit.

This is a major issue and needs to be addressed.

Hunter
 
I will NOT lay blame. Techincal issues happen. HOWEVER...I will declare that if the campaign does not do something to ensure the procedures they are doing are going to work, this can easily happen again. This is what I do for a living. Trust me, I am a Doctor for Computers. <Sorry, bad joke>. Anyway, I truly will give my time for the campaign to help them in this regard.
 
This is why centralizing our GET OUT THE VOTE efforts through the official campaign can be very risky. Perhaps this is why we need to pick up the slack as the grass-roots!

We need a War Room forum for New Hampshire, damn it!
 
All of the information would be in the forum, all of it could be disseminated and stored on everyone's computer.... we couldn't be touched, we could back up the forum on other websites so in case we went down at the strategic moment, we'd have recent backups ready to be used....
 
Okay, why the fuck would this information be kept on a computer? It should have been printed, on paper, so that it was tamper proof. That's ridiculous.
Exactly, they should have both physical copies as well as digital copies. The incompetence of some of the campaign is startling :confused::eek:
 
Let's think like Ron Paul for a second here - decentralization! Libertarian principles! Let's stop wishing everything will work out and use this forum to make it so that people VOTE FOR RON PAUL! :)
 
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