data collection

In response to the post I wrote a few weeks ago about the changing narrative around young voters, I received a call from Ivan Frishberg, who sits on the board of Young Voter PAC and the advisory board of CIRCLE. Ivan wrote to me to both confirm and elaborate on my thesis: that the media narrative surrounding young voters has changed and is reaching a potential tipping point this November. In our conversation, he painted an enlightening picture as to how and why the media misreported youth turnout in 2004, and why that narrative is finally changing.

In Ivan’s recounting of the 2004 election, it begins with a strategic plan executed by a coalition that included the New Voters Project and the Youth Vote Coalition. This plan had two goals:

1. Get campaigns to realize the importance of young voters and, consequently, spend a more proportionate share of their campaign warchest to reach young voters; and
2. Improve media coverage of young voters.

The cornerstone of this strategy was the accumulation of reliable data about field work aimed at young voters. Metrics.
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