Every week we speak with dozens of candidates and potential clients who are addicted to paper. A typical paper addict is either in denial that they have a problem, or acknowledge the problem and have been unable to remove this terrible addiction from their lives. The Republican paper addiction applies to walk lists for door to door efforts, phone lists for phone calls and even personnel lists.

Side effects of this terrible affliction include: loss of data, unnecessary expenditure of campaign funds, countless lost hours spent on data entry, a lack of understanding on key issues and in many cases – loss of volunteers.

5 signs you or a friend may be a paper addict:

1. Preferred status with your local Office Depot or office supply store means you’re definitely wasting money – proof of any paper addiction.

• Office supply stores are usually where paper addicts go to get their fix and stock up an various paraphernalia associated with paper addiction
• Only paper addicts continue to spend money on these items when a paperless solution exists
• If unsure of status with Office Depot, note the look in the manager’s eye when you enter the store. If greeted with “Welcome back (your first name here)” – you may have a problem.

2. Bags under eyes, morning thirst coffee wont quench and general malaise in campaign meetings.

• These symptoms indicate you’ve been up all night entering data because your campaign does not have a paperless voter contact solution.

3. Busywork side effect: Knowing how many surveys you’ve keyed or scanned into a computer, but having no idea how voters feel about any issue or your candidate.

• This is what happens when the task consumes your time, leaving little or no time for analysis of the work

4. Regular “dumbfoundness” – this is the moment when you can’t answer questions like:

• What is our best issue with voters?
• How many supporters have we identified with our field program?
• How close are we to our vote goal?
• How many voters have we taken off our target mail list because they don’t support us?
• What is our top issue with under 40 voters?
• What do millienials think about our candidate?

5. Expert in begging when volunteers and staff leave because of burnout and disorganization.

• While an extreme symptom of Republican paper addiction, this happens more often than most addicts admit
• In this scenario, people under 30 will not touch the campaign and if they do – chances are high they will leave after great stress and advise all friends to stay out of Republican politics because its “stuck in the 1980’s.”

The good news is – paper addiction is treatable.

At Voter Gravity, we spend every waking moment treating as many Republicans as possible who suffer from a paper addiction. Voter Gravity saves campaigns money by eliminating hard supply and personnel costs, in addition to facilitating more effective targeting and messaging.

Through a mobile application and integrated phone system that take in real time data, we eliminate paper, ink and manual data entry completely. With this real time information, you will save money immediately and make better decisions on your mail and media buys because you will know exactly what voters need to hear, the moment they tell you.

You can overcome this disease. The Dems did it, and if they can do it – goodness knows, anyone can do it.

Republican paper addiction treatment plans through a Voter Gravity subscription start at just $99/month. Set up your consultation today.