Obama uses speech for high-tech outreach

At the same time, the Colorado Democratic Party was mounting its own drive, with stadium volunteers placing calls to Colorado voters who had been identified as undecided in the presidential contest.

A group of about two dozen volunteers worked over folding tables, hands pressed over their ears to try to hear the people they were calling over the din of the public address system and the crowd all around them.

At each table, the Obama supporters worked off a list of area residents, and read from a script encouraging people to watch Obama's speech, visit his Web site or sign up for text messages.

"To tell you the truth you can't hear much, you can't really hear who you're talking to," said Anita Padilla, a telecommunications worker from Denver.

In about five minutes, Padilla made five calls, getting one positive response, two disconnected messages, a hang-up, and a "no."

While the outreach to voters and nonvoters is by itself a useful tactic, the calls will generate useful lists of phone numbers, many of them identified by the specific issue of interest to the person on that end of the call.

"It's a data gathering exercise as well," Backus said.

Data mining
A campaign spread sheet obtained by The Associated Press lists the number of eligible voters in each of the 50 states, highlighting the 18 states where Obama has been spending the most money. Different columns identify the number of non-registered eligible voters, distinguishing them by age and race.

For instance, the campaign knows that there are nearly 170,000 eligible voters in Missouri who are between the ages of 18 and 24 and are not registered to vote. Through data mining techniques, the campaign has identified many of those people and can make a direct appeal to them.

The campaign sought to replicate the stadium effort at 4,500 parties to watch Obama's speech in various battleground states. Backus said volunteers would be making calls from the watch parties as well.

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