Ecanvasser Announces Launch of Canvassing App ‘Go’

Ecanvasser is a political campaigning technology company used by over 2,500 campaigns in more than 70 countries worldwide. Based in Cork, Ecanvasser is also Europe’s leading political software provider, and they have announced the launch of its new location-based voter contact app ‘Go’. Go allows politicians and parties to get beyond the online bubble by facilitating the capture of conversations with voters on the street or at public events. It aims to bring the simplicity of apps like Uber or Jobr to the world of politics.

Go’s features, designed to make capturing “real life” voter interactions more efficient, include swipe-based voter sentiment logging, digital polling surveys, and GDPR-compliant e-signature consent capture. It is the second field app for political campaigning that the company has developed, following the launch of Walk in 2014.

The European elections taking place in May are one of the largest in the world and campaign tools such as Ecanvasser being widely employed. However, both the European Commission and the general public are worried that they could be unduly influenced by forces seeking to undermine the democratic process. The Commission has strengthened its ability to impose sanctions on any parties if they are found to illegally use personal data to influence an election. Ecanvasser welcomes these efforts and is committed to providing the technology needed to build authentic grassroots campaigns that factor in the real world viewpoints of those also online.

According to Ecanvasser founder and CEO Brendan Finucane:

“Go provides a necessary counterweight to political communication that takes place solely through social media and lacks a face-to-face dimension. Politicians have a responsibility to make sure they understand the views of all the electorate, not just the 1 in 5 that are on Twitter.”

“As the leading provider to European political parties, we’re committed to providing the technology to help them do that. If they can manage voter outreach in a way that both holds them accountable to the public and takes their data protection seriously, then we might start the journey of rebuilding trust in the political process.”

He added: “Society is understandably concerned about the undue influence of outside actors in the election process. Go aims to challenge this by allowing politicians to get past the online bubble and capture voter sentiment face-to-face. Being able to do this at scale is the challenge we have solved for political parties.”