Inside Team Romney's whale of an IT meltdown = Orca, the Romney campaign's "killer" app

The 2012 presidential election season was highlighted by dramatic debates, nearly $1 billion of negative TV ads, incessant polling and intensive "ground games" to mobilize voters and get them to voting booths in key swing states.

On Nov. 6, it was the ground game, as well as what we now know as demographics favoring Democrats, that proved key to President Obama's victory. In a race that both sides anxiously deemed too close to call, the Romney and Obama camps bet that their technology would help provide the crucial edge. Both invested heavily in software, data modeling and brainpower to identify and message likely voters throughout the campaign. On Election Day, however, technology led the Romney candidacy down a wrong path.

Romney's Orca
The Romney team's Election Day operation poured its soul into Project Orca, which the candidate described as "state of the art" technology. It was supposed to paint a real-time picture as the voting unfolded, allowing Romney's campaign team to allocate resources and mobilize the voters they needed in critical swing state precincts.

It turned out that Orca's human masters misread the voter turnout. ...