In short, a volunteer signs up. The 25 nearest neighbors who pique the DNC's interest are then mapped out for the volunteer. The DNC also offers a script to use during canvassing as volunteers go door to door, asking their neighbors the degree of their Democratic support or their support for John McCain. The volunteers asks about their neighbors' top issue interests. The aim is to return and later target each person with a specific script based on their previously identified concerns.

Volunteers are ranked locally for their effectiveness and rewarded with invitations to intraparty conference calls or meetings. They are also encouraged to forward invitations by e-mail to friends or family, mimicking the viral success of social networking websites.

The program, which debuted in Kansas in late April, was expanded to Virginia. The DNC plans to gradually roll out the program nationally by mid-summer. ...

The party continues to build the DNC's voter file with some assistance from the Obama and Clinton campaigns, which have been offloading data to the DNC file.

That, in itself, is an accomplishment for a party that brought its voter file in-house for the first time in the 2006 midterm elections. That year, Democrats conducted a pilot program using the data in six states, including Montana, where Jon Tester unseated Republican Sen. Conrad Burns. ...

"A lot of the consumer data helps at the margins," said Keith Goodman, the director of special projects in the DNC's political department. And, as Goodman notes, many elections are decided in the margins.