Sources of voter lists are defining the campaigns, could affect the election as well.

[madfloridian]

This article shows the huge difference between the Obama and Clinton campaigns in their choice of voter lists.

I had no idea there was such a great contrast. This could also have a great effect in the general election in November. It shows two vastly different mindsets.

From National Journal:

The Big Blue Wave

Rather than focusing on a handful of swing states, Dean and a chorus of like-minded allies have argued, Democrats should invest substantial time and money in trying to restore their competitiveness, even in Republican territory. As part of that initiative, Dean has provided every state party with funds to hire organizers and upgrade computerized voter files.

Dave Boundy, the DNC's political director, says that while Clinton has used voter files from a private vendor, Obama has mostly purchased the files from state parties. Under the agreement with those parties, Boundy added, Obama will update the files to show which voters responded to his outreach efforts. That should help state parties and the eventual nominee target their own turnout campaigns this fall.

And this should have an impact on the election in the fall, but only if it is used by the nominee.

In addition, Boundy said, the DNC is about to unveil a computerized tool that will help channel the new wave of volunteers into door-to-door campaigns later this year. The tool will allow state parties and Democratic candidates to identify voters they want to reach -- and then allow activists to access an online list of the targets closest to their own homes. "We have two very sharp candidates... who are going around the country and igniting all of this stuff," Boundy said. "And what we have for the first time is a way to capture that and turn it into productive activity."

I assume the Clinton campaign is using Catalist, the voter database formed by Harold Ickes.

Perhaps Ickes' largest-scale project is Catalist, a private company born out of his open distrust in the ability of Democratic Party chairman Howard Dean to build a voter database to rival that of the Republicans. Ickes is president of the company.

"It's unclear to me," Ickes said, whether the Democratic Party's database is uniform and rich enough for a national election.

The Democratic Party's voter database, a party spokeswoman said, is fully functional and accessible through a central interface.

"Given the proven success of VoteBuilder in the 2006 elections and the overwhelmingly positive response we've had from the campaigns and state parties who used it, we are very confident in our voter file," said DNC communications director Karen Finney.

The Politico from 2007

It should be interesting to see how all of this plays out not only in the primaries, but in the fall.