E Pluribus Unum

...[T]he Macomb County [Mich.] "victory center" [was] a jumble of tables and folding chairs and boxes of cold pizza where dozens of volunteers clutched Republican Party-issued cellphones against their ears -- the days of banks of telephones plugged into a wall are over -- and read from scripts. At the end of each interview, they blackened a circle on a bubble sheet (think No. 2 pencils and the SAT test), signifying whether this was a voter the party would circle back to -- once, twice or more -- to make certain he or she would be at the polls on Nov. 7.

It was still nearly five months before Election Day, but the 72-hour plan, the Republicans' voter-turnout program that ambushed the Democrats in 2002 and 2004, was already humming along.

Mehlman was delighted as he watched what he said was his party's latest technological adaptation. The bubble sheets could be scanned by a computer, he said proudly, saving time and money as the results are incorporated into the Republicans' formidable database. "It is a relatively nice day at the end of June, and in the building we just left, they just made 10,000 ID calls," Mehlman said. "That is really good for the party."

This is hard work. But, clearly, it pays off for the Republicans every election cycle.

Are the Democrats doing this?