Obama Machine Knows What You Want

Although Barack Obama's campaign might have your email, you probably don’t know how much more data it's got on you, and how effectively it's using it to try to win in November. Salon looks into Obama’s incredible effort to glean powerful demographic information from voters—address, income, grocery store preference, and much, much more—to custom-tailor messages for a diverse electorate.

Information is compiled from what supporters volunteer, then combined with independent research and sophisticated marketing software. This complex approach allows the campaign to target a message about education, for instance, to a voter deemed statistically likely to have children. "It takes getting out the vote from the horse and buggy era to the space age," says one Democratic consultant. (More Barack Obama stories.)