The infrastructure for processing all this data came from a company then called the Voter Activation Network, Inc. (VAN), which was run by a fabulous gay couple from the Boston area, Mark Sullivan and Jim St. George. By the end of the 2008 campaign, thanks to VAN, the Democratic National Committee would have ten times more data on voters than it had after the 2004 campaign. This volume of data, and the tools to organize and manipulate it, gave Democrats a clear advantage in driving voters to the polls.
