Our Oregon Rolls Out Innovative Mobile Voter Guide

PORTLAND, Ore., Oct. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- A coalition of Oregon's equal rights, labor and conservation groups is leaping forward in its voter engagement by releasing a mobile voter guide powered by the newest geo-location technology.

"The Our Oregon Mobile Voter Guide is ahead of both the political and technology curves," said Patrick Green, Our Oregon Executive Director. "We know that voters look to groups they trust for information and recommendations on ballot measures, and this app brings those recommendations right to their mobile device in a new agile way." 

The app uses new geo-location technology to precisely target a voter's location, allowing the app to deliver election information relevant to each user. Users can enter an address or allow the app to use their device's location services to get their local ballot measure information.

The platform was built and is being distributed by Winning Mark, a national political media firm based in Portland, Ore., and makes use of new geo-push technology developed and rolled out this October by Portland, Ore. tech startup Urban Airship.

"The mobile voter guide is a supremely versatile use of smartphone and tablet technology," said Jeff Lennan, Winning Mark co-founder and technology director. "It allows a deeper level of conversation and activism by organizations and their supporters. That conversation will translate to votes this election and deeper engagement during the legislative session and beyond."

Our Oregon is heavily promoting the mobile voter guide in a multi-media ad and social media campaign. Ads with taglines such as "A Better Oregon? There's an app for that" are appearing on Tri-met buses, newspapers, Pandora radio, and other online media, with additional paid and organic promotions on Facebook and Twitter. Print versions of the voter guide will be mailed to Oregon voters.

The groups participating in the app collectively represent around 400,000 Oregonians. The app allows these groups to reach thousands of additional voters through the app and multi-media campaign. 

While each organization has its own roster of ballot measure recommendations, most of the groups are targeting two: A No vote for Measure 84, which would eliminate the estate tax for estates worth more than $1 million, cutting hundreds of millions of dollars from schools and critical services; and a Yes vote for Measure 85, which would redirect corporate kicker refunds to K-12 schools.

Organizations participating in the Our Oregon Mobile Voter Guide are: Basic Rights Oregon, The Mother PAC, Oregon Education Association, Oregon League of Conservation Voters, Oregon AFL-CIO, Oregon PTA, Oregon AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers – Oregon, Oregon Nurses Association, SEIU Local 503, SEIU Local 49, and Planned Parenthood PAC of Oregon.

In building the mobile platform that runs the Our Oregon Mobile Voter Guide, Winning Mark used geo-segmented push technology by Urban Airship in Portland, Ore. and geo-coding via the Cicero API by Azavea in Philadelphia, Penn., to match the latitude and longitude of the mobile device to legislative and other local districts.

About Our Oregon:

Our Oregon is a 501(c)(4) organization dedicated to fighting for economic and social fairness for all Oregonians. Our coalition represents organizations and individuals who care about a range of issues, from preserving funding for our schools and critical services to protecting the environment.  Visit http://www.ouroregon.org, download the mobile voter guide: http://bit.ly/OURapp, and join us on Facebook/OurOregon and Twitter @ouroregon.

Media contacts:
Our Oregon, Scott Moore 503-961-2374, [email protected]
Winning Mark, Jeff Lennan 503-715-6293 [email protected]

SOURCE Our Oregon