Blurring The Lines

Advertising

Do You Like NASCAR? This 'Non-partisan' Voter Registration Group Doesn’t Want To Help You
Washington Free Beacon
"But behind the scenes, Facebook ad library data indicate the Voter Participation Center’s ad campaign is deployed with partisan intent. The group has instructed Facebook to exclude from the reach of its ads anyone with expressed interests in 26 categories typically associated with Republican men, including the "PGA Tour," "Indianapolis 500," "Daytona 500," "Tom Clancy," "Modified Jeeps," "Duck Dynasty," and others."

Campaigns

Influencer running for U.S. Senate challenges campaign finance rules
Washington Post
"Gleich is asking the FEC to agree that sponsored posts are 'business communications' and therefore exempt from the rule."

Fundraising

Conservatives take aim at Democratic fundraising platform ActBlue
Fast Company
"'A single donation might actually show up dozens or, in some instances, even hundreds of times on an FEC search,' Fischer says. But amateur sleuths often misinterpret this reporting quirk as evidence that a single donor has made far larger—and more frequent—contributions than they really have."

House and Senate Republicans are starting to panic about a huge money gap with Democrats
Politico
"Vulnerable House Democrats and the party’s challengers in key races put up another strong online fundraising month in July, according to data from ActBlue, the Democratic fundraising platform. Six battleground Democrats raised at least $500,000 on the platform last month, and nearly 20 others raised at least $250,000."

Security

Hacking blind spot: States struggle to vet coders of election software
Politico
"The probe unearthed some unwelcome surprises: software misconfigured to connect to servers in Russia and the use of open-source code — which is freely available online — overseen by a Russian computer engineer convicted of manslaughter, according to a person familiar with the examination and granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it."

When Get-Out-The-Vote Efforts Look Like Phishing
Krebs On Security
"Multiple media reports this week warned Americans to be on guard against a new phishing scam that arrives in a text message informing recipients they are not yet registered to vote. A bit of digging reveals the missives were sent by a California political consulting firm as part of a well-meaning but potentially counterproductive get-out-the-vote effort that had all the hallmarks of a phishing campaign."

Social Media

The six online trends we’re watching ahead of Election Day
FWIW
"Using social analytics platform Zelf to track sentiment of TikTok posts each week, we can confidently say that pro-Harris and anti-Trump content is now the norm on the app. It remains to be seen how long can Harris ride that wave of enthusiasm and support."

Technology

'Follow the eyeballs': The GOP's long-game strategy on campaign tech
Politico Tech Podcast
"An investment fund for tech startups helping Republicans to win elections has put less money into fewer companies than its Democratic rival. (We talked to them a few episodes back, go give it a listen.) But Eric Wilson, the managing partner at Startup Caucus, contends that doesn’t mean the GOP is behind. On POLITICO Tech, Wilson tells host Steven Overly why Republican campaigns are less reliant on technology than Democrats, at least for now, and how that’s going to change."

Slouching to Election Day with MiniVAN
The Connector
"The app is still clunky and confusing to use. Its map feature doesn’t integrate with consumer-facing tools like Google Maps, so if your bit of assigned turf requires driving you have to constantly toggle between tools."

The Possibilities Of Virtual Production
Campaign Trend Podcast
"It's sort of the next stage or the next iteration of technology where you're combining a virtual environment with a practical, a tangible, real world environment to create an image. So essentially you're using LED screens to broadcast a 3D image and then having actors and props who are also in the shot. So it feels like you're in the living room and really you're on a sound stage. It's really cool, interactive technology."