MoveOn's Amazing Election Tool

By Adam Doster, In These Times. Posted January 5, 2007.

MoveOn.org's Web-based phone-banking program Call for Change enabled volunteers to make more than 7 million calls leading up to the November elections -- and may have flipped a lot of races for the Dems.

In the lead up to the midterm elections, MoveOn.org paid little attention to the Virginia Senate race, figuring that Republican incumbent George Allen would cruise to re-election over Jim Webb. But when Allen dropped a racial epithet on a young Webb aide and things tightened up, MoveOn took notice.

"We weren't going to get involved in Virginia," says Jennifer Lindenauer, the organization’s communications director. "But then we saw that it was a race where we could make an impact." In less than two months, MoveOn directed 503,181 volunteer phone calls into Virginia. On Election Day, Webb ousted Allen by a mere 7,236 votes.