The interface for Orca was a mobile Web application connected to a set of mirrored databases of voter rolls. When a user logged in, the app would load a page with a scrollable list of all the registered voters in the precinct they were assigned to. By swiping a checkbox next to a voter’s name, they could record them as having voted; the entry was then transmitted back to Orca’s application server. A back-up call response system—similar in nature to the Houdini system used by the Obama campaign in 2008 (a system which also ran into trouble)—provided a way for volunteers to report possible voting irregularities into the system even if their data connectivity failed. Using information gathered through the campaign’s digital outreach and pulled from the campaign’s voter contact vendor, FLS Connect, the system was supposed to give volunteers in Boston a complete view of Romney supporters in swing states who hadn’t yet voted. It would then prompt phone calls asking supporters to vote.

via Which consultants built Romney’s “Project Orca?” None of them | Ars Technica.