ORCA (computer system)
Project Orca is a mobile application-based system that was planned to be a key part of the "get out the vote" (GOTV) effort during Mitt Romney's 2012 U.S. presidential campaign.
Requirements and development
Orca was conceived by Dan Centinello, Romney's director of voter contact and Rich Beeson, the campaign's political director.[1] The objective was to deploy a mobile application to 37,000 volunteers at polling places in swing states.[1] The volunteers would track the arrival of known supporters. The information they gathered would be monitored by 800 volunteers at campaign headquarters via a Web-based application; it would be used to coordinate contacts throughout election day to pro-Romney voters who had not shown up at the polls.[1]
As a fallback, a voice response system would also be established, to allow mobile app users to call in information if the app wasn't working.[1]
The project was developed by an application consulting firm and Microsoft.[1]
Obama's GOTV program was called "Narwhal", after narwhal whales, and Romney's project was named "Orca", after orcas, the only known predator of narwhals, according to Romney campaign communications director Gail Gitcho.[2][3]
Problems on election day
Volunteers complained that the system failed catastrophically during the election day, preventing 40,000 volunteers from tracking voters for Romney.[4] The failure might have been prevented Romney from closing the vote gap between him and rival Barack Obama in key states.[4][2] One aide of Romney's campaign said that the program gave wrong results during the election day and another aide said that it had crashed.[5] Zac Moffatt, digital director for Romney campaign, acknowledged problems and inadequate beta testing, but he said that Orca mostly worked and didn't affect the election's outcome.[2][6]
References
- ^ a b c d e Gallagher, Sean (Nov 9, 2012). "Inside Team Romney's whale of an IT meltdown". Ars Technica.
- ^ a b c Farber, Dave, "Why Romney's Orca killer app beached on Election Day. Project Orca was supposed to give the Romney campaign a technical advantage over Obama on election day. It got harpooned instead.", cnet.com
- ^ Warner, Margaret (November 5, 2012), "Romney Campaign Enlists Help of 'Killer Whale' Project to Get Out the Vote", PBS
- ^ a b Pollack, Joel B. (8 Nov 2012), "Exclusive - Inside Orca: How the Romney Campaign Suppressed Its Own Vote", breitbart.com,
As Republicans try to explain their Election Day losses in terms of policy, tactics, and strategy, one factor is emerging as the essential difference between the Obama and Romney campaigns on November 6: the absolute failure of Romney's get-out-the-vote effort, which underperformed even John McCain's lackluster 2008 turnout. One culprit appears to be "Orca," the Romney's massive technology effort, which failed completely.
- ^ Byron York (November 7, 2012), "In Boston, stunned Romney supporters struggle to explain defeat", The Washington Examiner
- ^ Margaret Warner (November 9, 2012), "Beached Orca Project Couldn't Save the Romney Campaign", PBS
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