Election Tech Tuesday: RNC Aims to Enhance Voter Engagement With Data Engineering

Article Read time:
Projects: Election Initiatives
Election Tech Tuesday: RNC Aims to Enhance Voter Engagement With Data Engineering

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

RNC Aims to Enhance Voter Engagement With Data Engineering

RNC Aims to Enhance Voter Engagement With Data Engineering

Political parties lag behind commercial businesses in their use of data for targeted communications, but new digital projects are developing partisan tools to reach potential voters. Para Bellum Labs is the newly launched, in-house technology incubator for the Republican National Committee (RNC). The venture has developed five integrated tools to identify likely Republican voters based on real-time information and to use those data to contact those voters and get them to the polls.

The RNC’s precinct captains and volunteers will update and share data through RNC Beacon, the voter relationship management system, and communicate with voters using the organization’s new canvassing app, which connects to the RNC’s database using the RNC Dynamo Application Programming Interface. RNC Dynamo syncs with Facebook and specialized mobile apps used by campaign volunteers working on voter outreach. OneData is the most comprehensive RNC voter file to date, with 18 years of voter contact history, demographic information, and third-party contacts.

The RNC is also targeting voters with Foresight, a scoring system and predictive analytics engine. The system ranks people in the party’s database according to their propensity to vote. Republican committees and campaigns then utilize RNC Control Panel—a data reporting interface—to make real-time decisions, such as where to deploy resources.

Para Bellum Labs plans to hold hackathons later this year to recruit talent and is collaborating with a variety of groups, including students and Silicon Valley developers.

Election Tech Tuesday will discuss the Democratic National Committee’s new technology initiative Project Ivy next week.

Follow us on Twitter using #electiondata and get the latest data dispatches, research, and news by subscribing today.

America’s Overdose Crisis
America’s Overdose Crisis

America’s Overdose Crisis

Sign up for our five-email course explaining the overdose crisis in America, the state of treatment access, and ways to improve care

Sign up
Quick View
America’s Overdose Crisis

America’s Overdose Crisis

Sign up for our five-email course explaining the overdose crisis in America, the state of treatment access, and ways to improve care

Sign up
RELATED
Tags
Election administration
Projects
Election Initiatives

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES

An adult and a child huddle in front of a laptop computer, their faces lit by the screen, with a room and bright windows behind them.

Article

November 27, 2023 Researchers Share How State Grants Boost Broadband Access
A group of teenagers gather in a park with bikes, their silhouettes in high contrast to the cloudy sky behind them.

Article

November 2, 2023 Insights on Brain Development Can Improve Youth Justice
Five video cameras on tripods stand in a line, with one reporter holding a camera slightly out of focus, all aimed at the same subject.

Article

October 6, 2023 Data-Based Journalism Needed to Advance Youth Justice

MORE FROM PEW

An aerial view of a vast wetland, with scattered vegetation visible on sandy islands. In Western Australia, a Conservation Model for the World
A presentation being given by a businesswoman to a group of participants at a business conference. Four Plan Features Can Boost 'Retirement Readiness'
A large group of people in formal or traditional attire stands together on a stage, with a digital background depicting marine life and the large text “WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies.” WTO Needs to Redouble Its Effort on Fishing Subsidies
A man in a winter hat and sunglasses kneels on a rocky shoreline in front of a campfire, holding a metal mug with gloved hands. Behind him, in the water, a motorboat is moored to the shore. Cliffs rise on both sides of the water. Why Newfoundland’s South Coast Fjords Are Sacred
Composite image of modern city network communication concept

Learn the Basics of Broadband from Our Limited Series

Sign up for our four-week email course on Broadband Basics
Quick View

How does broadband internet reach our homes, phones, and tablets? What kind of infrastructure connects us all together? What are the major barriers to broadband access for American communities?

Pills illustration
Pills illustration

What Is Antibiotic Resistance—and How Can We Fight It?

Sign up for our four-week email series The Race Against Resistance.
Quick View
Pills illustration

Antibiotic-resistant bacteria, also known as “superbugs,” are a major threat to modern medicine. But how does resistance work, and what can we do to slow the spread? Read personal stories, expert accounts, and more for the answers to those questions in our four-week email series: Slowing Superbugs.