Christian-right organizers merge church membership databases with voter records to target turnout
Evidence
That initiative, called Awake 88, is still in place today. The website for Awake 88 promises “timelines, tools, suggested messaging, videos,” and other support for pastors. “We need your help to mobilize the voters in your church!” the website exclaims. One tool advertised by Awake 88 is the Church Voter Lookup, which essentially marries a church database with a voter database. “You’ll then receive a report that tells you what percentage of your congregation is registered to vote and what percentage actually voted in the last election!” — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 107
Categorization
- SEED: The mechanical data-infrastructure angle — church database married to voter file for get-out-the-vote — could anchor an essay on how religious institutions function as voter-microtargeting assets.
- XREF: connects to: Conservative churches function as the get-out-the-vote infrastructure of a shadow party — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 38; Pastor networks recruit politically connected congregants to lead voter-turnout teams inside churches — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 66; Christian-right get-out-the-vote buses coordinate with Republican swing-district targets. — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers: Inside the…, 91 (+5 more)
Broader Connections
- Pastor-mobilization meetings are timed and placed to swing contested elections.
#expands(0.82) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 358 - A Christian nationalist nonprofit held data on nearly every US voter.
#expands(0.78) — Katherine Stewart, The Power Worshippers, 689 - The Christian Right has long openly pursued suppression of rival voters
#responds-to(0.72) — Philip S. Gorski and Samuel L. Perry, The Flag and the Cross, 311 - Feigned persecution, not actual threat, drives religious voter turnout
#qualifies(0.72)