IOP Director Trey Grayson hosted an interactive roundtable discussion in Washington, D.C. – in partnership with the Internet Association– exploring "The Midterm Election & The Digital Policy Agenda" on technology, political campaigns and legislative policy, attended by dozens of representatives from news organizations, internet companies, public opinion and strategy firms and the world of politics and public service.
The event included two sessions on technology and politics: "Campaign 2014: How Technology is Transforming Elections" and "Privacy, Patents and Innovation: Congress and the Midterms," a discussion moderated by Institute Senior Advisory Committee member and POLITICO Executive Editor Rick Berke. You can watch video of the event on the Institute’s YouTube page.
The first session on “Campaign 2014” explored the ever-growing role technology is playing in how people receive their information – and what that means for campaigns courting votes. Here are a few takeaways:
1. Live TV is still “King,” but losing ground to new technologies
A new poll from Public Opinion Strategies released at the event showed for political campaigns – as well as corporations and anyone else – reaching the younger population is not as simple as in years past. The poll found although 70% of Americans are still watching live television, those streaming video content on other devices – like Roku, Apple, Chromecast, etc. – has increased from 17% to 27% over the past two years; those getting content on smart phones (16% to 27%) and tablets (14% to 26%) similarly increased over the same time period.
The poll also showed: respondents are watching more non-live television (12.1 hours) than live television (10.2 hours) per week; nearly a third (30%) watch no live television other than sports; and almost half visited YouTube in the past week. IOP Polling Director John Della Volpe noted that in 2005 a little-known Massachusetts gubernatorial candidate named Deval Patrick, running against two better-funded opponents, went from third place to first without running a single TV ad (and eventually won election).
Campaigns can’t merely rely on running ads on live television if they want to reach younger voters under the age of 30. The challenge for campaigns is to meet this group in mediums outside of live television and for campaigns to diversify their communications channels.
2. Younger voters are still volunteering in greater numbers than voting
IOP Polling Director John Della Volpe, who leads a fourteen year-old study of the political beliefs of Millennials, noted that in the last two presidential election cycles we have had more participation by younger voters than voters over the age of 65, and 20% of all voters in the next cycle will be under the age of 30.
However, the polarizing nature of Washington, D.C. continues to turn young people off from politics – while their interest in community service and volunteerism remains strong.
Della Volpe noted that Millennials care deeply about their community – and it would not be a shock to see more youth volunteer than the proportion who vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
Because young people rely so heavily on new technologies, it is very important to connect technology not only to campaigns – but also to government – to get more people engaged and feel empowered in politics and public service.
Della Volpe argued outreach technologies can also be used AFTER elections to keep voters engaged in their government and the political process. Whether the current mindset in Washington, D.C. could and would do this is an open question.
3. Making technological innovations available to down-ballot campaigns is important, but not happening enough
U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren’s digital director, Lauren Miller, noted that although digital technologies may be a priority for statewide and presidential races, congressional campaigns are far more challenged – as many of them do not have a person earmarked to focus on digital strategy. A big challenge for 2014 and 2016 congressional campaigns is being able to utilize groundbreaking technological innovations from past presidential campaigns to reach voters in races on a smaller scale.
Recent political campaigns who have tried to recreate the Obama campaign’s in-house innovations from scratch, for example, have been frustrated by limited success. National political organizations could consider themselves a good place for these innovations to be centralized and made available to all campaigns – not just presidential campaigns – thereby potentially increasing political engagement and participation at all levels.
4. Polling in 2016 and beyond
Della Volpe noted that picking up the phone at home and having a 30-minute phone conversation with a pollster on an arcane policy matter – an accepted practice decades ago – is now completely deemed an “unnatural act” by basically everyone with a landline. However, even today some pollsters still attempt to operate this way, ignoring how much technology has changed our world and expectations.
Cell phone, landline and internet polling options must be explored in today’s political environment – and an ever-greater focus must be paid to reaching Hispanic voters. Della Volpe noted that pollsters at all levels of political campaigns will eventually use a “blender” of data – primary research and secondary research – like the Obama presidential campaign did – to govern how tactical campaign decisions are made.
5. Tech Policy – how these complex issues are and will be treated in Congress
The conference’s second session, moderated by Institute Senior Advisory Committee member and POLITICO Executive Editor Rick Berke, focused on technology policy and what legislative action Congress will and should take on privacy, security, data collection and other issues where technology is concerned.