Using voter data and segmentation, Colorado-based liberal activist group, ProgressNow, has initiated a letter writing campaign utilizing -- get this -- analog pens, pencils and paper. In one of many examples of the Web and technology driving offline political action and engagement, the organization is petitioning members to set up letter writing house parties on October 19th in anticipation of state tax and bond referenda C and D.

I got a note today from Bobby Clark, deputy director of ProgressNow.org; he told me that the group is "working the phones and emails right now getting other groups to forward to their lists." In a previous discussion I had with Clark, he told me that ProgressNow is allowing members to download names and addresses of Colorado voters they've selected as the best to target from voter files they received from the Secretary of State there. The voter file information they're making available doesn't include voter histories nor party affiliation.

Essentially, the campaign involves supporters of the referenda writing others in the state, urging them to vote yes on C and D. The group has enabled members to create a "MyProgress" Web page, from which they can download voter names and addresses for their postal parties. They can also download a host kit (a .pdf document) that "includes tips and talking points for your letters, reminders for your party, and important facts about C&D and Colorado’s budget crisis."

According to Clark, Howard Dean's Democratic presidential primary campaign did something similar in which Deaniacs wrote to Idaho in support of their chosen one. Clark opined in my earlier discussion with him that, compared to a phone call or in-person discussion, "Writing a letter isn’t as confrontational; you can have personal contact, but there's not as much potential for conflict."

Sure, that makes sense. And handwritten letters, especially when they feature personal expressions, are a lot more difficult to ignore than, say, some generic direct mail piece or canned mass email message.

But, to play devil's advocate, the flipside is that when the writers don't live near the letter recipients, those recipients can express resentment. Remember when British newspaper The Guardian Unlimited urged its readers to write to voters in Clark County, Ohio before the '04 election in support of John Kerry? In launching Operation Clark County, the folks at the paper wrote, "The most powerful transatlantic connection is a personal one, so we have designed a system to match individual Guardian readers with individual voters in Clark County, in the crucial swing state of Ohio." To be honest, if I got a letter like that from somebody living, not only in some other state, but another country, I'd feel pretty patronized, despite the good intentions -- whether I agreed with the writer or not. I'll bet even some of those so-called undecided voters in Clark County grew spiteful after getting one of those letters.

But, in this case, though ProgressNow serves the general mountain west, most writers will also be voting on the very same referenda. So, there's probably a lot less of a chance of this campaign backfiring into a reaction like, "Oh yeah? And who are you to tell me how I should vote? I didn't even care about this before, but now I'm going to go out and vote against this just to piss you off!"

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