The Contact Gap: Proof of the Importance of the Ground Game?

[X.'s note: This is mostly as a shout out to my fellow Drive for Changers who volunteered from California in Nevada! Nicely done! Oh, one scary thing to note though is that we actually didn't have much of an increased ground game turnout relative to 2004. Though Nate Silver does seem to suggest it was likely better organized, it's still disconcerting that even with all this energy we barely beat Bush's ground game from 2004 (which if they would've shown up could've made the election landscape look different). We had 26% voter contact Bush had 24% (McCain 18%). Next time let's make sure that even with a less favorable landscape that we readily beat the Republican ground game. ]

By Nate Silver:

One of the more interesting questions posed on this year's exit polls was whether the voter had been contacted by the Obama and McCain campaigns personally about getting out to vote. Unfortunately, the exit poll consortium did not ask this question in all states, but it did in a dozen or so competitive states; these figures are summarized below:

% of Voters Reporting Direct Contact from Campaigns

State  Obama   McCain   Gap

NV     50%     29%      21%
CO     51%     34%      17%
IN     37%     22%      15%
VA     50%     38%      12%
PA     50%     39%      11%
IA     41%     30%      11%
FL     29%     20%       9%
NC     34%     26%       8%
MO     44%     37%       7%
OH     43%     36%       7%
WI     42%     39%       3%
WV     29%     31%      -2%