Bernie Sanders 2020 Campaign Unveils Technology Tool to Increase Voters Database

CHICAGO – Senator Bernie Sanders posted his ground operation on Saturday with what he called the "largest ever distributed day of action in a presidential campaign" and announced a new online recruitment tool called BERN.

"We need to bring together the most powerful grassroots movement in the history of politics," Sanders said in a pre-recorded video broadcast in front of more than 4,700 launch events organized by volunteers across the country. "And we are well gone!"

The online tool allows everyday supporters to contribute to the campaign's voter database by recording the names and basic information of a family member to a stranger met at a local meeting. bus stop. He matches each name to a voter record before noting their level of support, their priority, and even their membership in a union.

Sanders began the race with a solid field operation, largely thanks to his 2016 run and a list of supporters that only increased in the following years. The send-out from the organization highlighted what the Sanders campaign sees as a major priority and a major benefit in the populous primary area of ​​Democrats.

"Many voices will try to reduce what we are building here together and argue that our movement has followed its course," national organizer Claire Sandberg said in the campaign video. "But the reality is," continued Sandberg, "we are growing every day."

Sanders says he has more than a million people registered to be part of his campaign. In the first quarter of 2019, his campaign surpassed the field, winning 900,000 donations from 525,000 individual donors.

At each campaign rally, volunteers digitally and meticulously collect each participant's e-mail address and phone number. According to the Sanders campaign, about 30% of the participants in the rally are listed for the first time in the campaign's data lists.

Saturday's supporters were trained in the use of the online tool and encouraged to immediately start mobilizing and developing the organization.

"Traditionally, it seems like this information is being passed on to the campaign to call voters or knock on their door," said Chris Wilson, a student from the University of Chicago who joined the organization. team after an event on campus.

Wilson's first incursion into politics was to appeal to the young and little-known bartender named Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, who was leading a main campaign in his state of New York.

"We now have all these people spread across the country, and they can start integrating people into the system," Wilson said.

He said that he had "dragged" his friend Shannon Sheu on a snowy afternoon in April to hold the event. Although Sheu says she is less involved in politics than Wilson and does not know who she will vote for in 2020, she loves the campaign tool.

"This significantly reduces the barrier to entry to really help and make a difference," said Sheu, impressed by his compatibility with people uncomfortable with political conversations. "You insert the names of the people and let other people send the emails."

Shaquille Brewster

Shaquille Brewster is a political producer for NBC News and MSNBC.