Washington, DC ­­ (April 19, 2012) — Reports filed by 1,357 candidates and party committees with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) Sunday night show that  campaigns using Aristotle software are doing significantly better in fundraising than those who use any one of the three next most popular products.

The results include Democrats, Republicans, challengers, incumbents and open seat campaigns and party committees that were required to file their financial disclosure reports electronically for the first quarter of 2012.  The FEC tallies the technology used by each committee to file their reports.

On average, of 1357 campaign committees listed, those using Aristotle raised an average of $809,058.  Those using NGP raised $466,628, which was on average 44.7% less than Aristotle clients; FECFile clients raised $135,575 on average; and NETFile clients raised $285,365 on average, according to the reports filed with the FEC.

“If anyone needed proof that powerful data mining works, this is it,” said Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips. “This is a very substantial financial advantage made possible by patent-pending data mining. Show me a campaign that could not benefit from an additional $342,430.

“We give campaigns the tools to find those who want to give, and make it easy for the contribution to be made, legally. We allow fundraisers to access, mine and harness millions of state contributor records so that no money is left on the table.”

Aristotle’s platform incorporates detailed state contributor and voter lists with highly accurate consumer databases to illuminate exactly how much a donor has given, how much they can give, and to suggest the maximum they might agree to contribute where allowed by law.

Aristotle is non-partisan. “Our place is not to pick candidates or parties we may agree with, but rather to provide all candidates and all parties and every advocacy group the tools they need to get their message out, to compete at the ballot box, so the voters can decide,” said Phillips. “We are a non-partisan provider because we believe in the democratic process.”

“Campaigns using Aristotle’s products not only raise more money, we also guarantee compliance,” former FEC Chairman and Aristotle Senior Vice President of Compliance Services David Mason said. “The Aristotle system safeguards campaigns against embarrassing stories that could potentially derail a campaign.”

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Media Contact: Brandi Travis, (202) 903-4221

About Aristotle
Aristotle has delivered smarter tools to political campaigns since 1983. Every U.S. President — Democrat and Republican — from Reagan through Obama, has used Aristotle products and/or services, as have many U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic and Republican state party organizations and other major campaigns worldwide.

Political Data Restrictions
Use of and access to voter list data is restricted in some jurisdictions. For information, contact an Aristotle representative. Searching for individual voters is not available, and voter names and addresses are not visible during your searches. Any information copied, or otherwise obtained, from any FEC report or statement, or any copy, reproduction, or publication thereof, filed under the Act, shall not be sold or used by any person for the purpose of soliciting contributions or for any commercial purpose, except that the name and address of any political committee may be used to solicit contributions from such committees.

… Aristotle, a company that provides similar services as NGP VAN’s for both Democratic and Republican campaigns, has been paid more than $15 million by federal campaigns and committees over the years, according to FEC records.

Its founder John Phillips asserted voter data can only take a campaign so far, plus he suggested Republicans may be milking the idea that they’re far behind to raise money for their groups.

He called it “a tried-and-true self-serving scare tactic from fundraisers seeking to exploit a ‘missile gap’ with naive fatcats.” And he asked in an email: “In 2010, why didn’t the Democrats’ perceived tech prowess yield any results?”

Washington, DC ­­ (February 27, 2011) — The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced Friday that commissioners voted unanimously to approve The Integrity Children’s Privacy Compliance Program, designed by Aristotle International, as a “safe harbor” program under the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA).

The FTC’s COPPA Rule mandates operators of websites and online services directed to children under the age of 13, and those who knowingly collect personal information from children, must post privacy policies on their sites, notify parents about their information practices, and obtain parental consent before collecting, using, or disclosing any personal information from children. COPPA’s “safe harbor” provision allows industry members and groups the freedom to employ an FTC-approved COPPA oversight program to reduce or eliminate the need for formal FTC investigation and law enforcement.

The Integrity Children’s Privacy Compliance Program protects children’s privacy by helping websites meet the standards established by the FTC, and gives companies more responsible and commercially reasonable ways to obtain parental consent for children online. This innovative application of technology obtains a parent’s clear, unambiguous consent to help children safely enjoy age-appropriate websites.

Integrity can now enable sites that focus on children 12 and younger, and even those that do not, to easily meet COPPA-compliance requirements, by leveraging Integrity’s extensive identity information to empower real-time verification of parents. This is an important safety enhancement in the virtual world and game environments, particularly where immediate approval is desired without the requirement of a credit card.

Most site operators currently rely on “e-mail plus” or require the processing of a credit card charge. The FTC’s new Rule addressing data retention and deletion, proposes to remove “e-mail plus” as an option for obtaining verifiable parental consent because “the Commission believes that e-mail plus has outlived its usefulness and should no longer be a recognized approach to parental consent under the Rule.” Aristotle shares the same view of the e-mail plus option—it is not a reliable method of obtaining parental consent because it is easily subject to circumvention by children. As a result, Aristotle has introduced a number of innovative and frictionless methods for obtaining verifiable parental consent.

Integrity has integrated modern technology into the parental verification process. The 13 online and offline mechanisms include real-time face-to-face verification of parents via Skype or similar videoconferencing technologies. It gives the parents the authority to say, “I am the adult responsible for this child and you may include him or her in this activity.” If a parent says “no”, the child may not participate. Where the provider is an online business, the FTC-approved safe harbor program is insurance against legal exposure and brand risk.

To earn safe harbor approval, the Integrity program had to fulfill three criteria:

1. Provide the same or greater protections for children as those contained in the Rule;
2. Set forth effective, mandatory mechanisms for the independent assessment of Members’ compliance; and
3. Provide effective incentives for Members’ compliance.

Aristotle’s safe harbor application was published in a Federal Register notice June 27, 2011, after which the FTC sought public comment through August 15, 2011. The Commission vote to approve the Aristotle safe harbor application was 4-0.

“This is great news for parents and for their kids, and for responsible marketers and social networking sites,” said Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips. “Companies seeking to communicate effectively with children now have a wide selection of FTC-approved methods to get the explicit consent of parents easily and affordably. After careful study of Aristotle’s Integrity Solution for COPPA Compliance, the FTC’s decision gives marketers a variety of relatively frictionless ways to comply with the law and to engage children. It’s good news for parents and, of course, kids, for whom the online experience should be safe and respectful of their privacy. It is our hope that Aristotle’s FTC-approved Integrity solution will encourage parents and their children to have a conversation about online safety and behavior at the time the child seeks to access websites.

“I want to thank leaders in the field like Nell Minow and Linda Criddle, who supported this application, and the FTC Commissioners who approved it. This approval will benefit the growing number of responsible marketers who have adopted Aristotle’s Integrity solutions for age and identity verification and can now utilize our COPPA-compliant program.”

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Media Contact: Brandi Travis, (202) 903-4221

About Aristotle

Aristotle has delivered smarter tools to political campaigns since 1983. Every U.S. President — Democrat and Republican — from Reagan through Obama, has used Aristotle products and/or services, as have many U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic and Republican state party organizations and other major campaigns worldwide.

About Integrity
Integrity services more countries and have greater depth of information worldwide than any other provider with over 135 countries and 3.4 billion records internationally. Changes in country demographics make this important and companies find global coverage is essential in modern borderless internet economies.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QyvWaz0aY3s&feature=player_embedded

The application was just approved by the FTC as a “safe harbor” program, as mapped out in the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

Read the FTC’s release here.

Washington, DC  (February 17, 2012) —Aristotle International, a leading nonpartisan political technology and data provider, announced today that it will be supplying reapportionment data to the Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP), an organization within the Department of Defense. FVAP was formed to assist uniformed service members, their families and overseas civilians to vote absentee.

FVAP assists military and overseas voters with the absentee ballot application process, registering to vote and obtaining ballots from anywhere in the world. Aristotle will provide FVAP with the data that ensures each voter is directed to the correct congressional district, which is determined by the results of the 2010 census and information on file with the Secretary of State or State Board of Elections. Many states’ voter files do not yet reflect the new redistricting lines, the updating of which is an expertise Aristotle has pioneered over the years. Aristotle also provides data hygiene routines to standardize voter rolls, identify those who have died or moved for its non-governmental clients.

The official results from the census show that eight states have gained congressional seats and 10 states have lost seats. The other states may not have gained or lost a seat, but the congressional district lines changed. Aristotle will help FVAP get this updated information to citizens living abroad quickly and accurately.

“I am thrilled to assist in providing our service men and women, and their families all over the world, with a seamless and accurate voting process,” said Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips. “Our mission at Aristotle has always been to provide a broad range of information, technology and services on a non-partisan basis, to facilitate the democratic process.

“This is an important innovation in the voting process and I am pleased to be a part of what we see as incremental advances towards what may someday be Internet voting for U.S. citizens and voting by expats living in the US, in their own elections back home. Aristotle has some of the expertise and data that would be invaluable in re-inventing the process of voting for citizens everywhere.”

FVAP administers the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act, which allows certain U.S. citizens to register and vote absentee in elections for federal office. These groups include: members of the military; eligible family of the military; Commissioned Corps of the Public Health Service, and Commissioned Corps of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration; U.S. citizens employed by the federal government residing outside the U.S.; and all other private U.S. citizens residing outside the U.S.

The FVAP administers the federal responsibilities of the National Voter Registration Act, which designates armed forces recruiting offices nationwide as voter registration agencies allowing eligible U.S. citizens to apply for voter registration, or apply to change voter registration data.

Washington, DC  (February 8, 2012) — The Obama campaign announced Monday that it will be returning more than $200,000 in contributions raised by family members of fugitive Pepe Cardona, who fled drug and fraud charges in the ‘90s. With the 2012 election season at full throttle and millions of dollars pouring into campaigns, campaign treasurers have seen their responsibilities expand beyond simply complying with strict disclosure rules imposed by the Federal Election Commission.

Aristotle International, a leading nonpartisan political data and compliance technology provider has the tools that ensure these campaigns are not unknowingly taking money from felons, illegal aliens, or other individuals on numerous anti-money laundering or terrorist watch lists.

Aristotle’s patent-pending data mining technology employs powerful software and algorithms, numerous ‘bad actor’ databases, and a highly accurate nationwide voter file to enable political committees and their treasurers to comply with complex state and federal campaign disclosure reporting requirements.

“When I was a candidate for Congress, my staff would never allow anyone to hand me an envelope for fear that it might be money from someone we didn’t want to be associated with,” Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips said. “Today, the rules are much tougher. Smart campaigns need to vet each and every donation coming at an event, in the mail or online. It’s not just a matter of checking for convicted sex offenders or felons. There are doctors who are Medicaid cheats, lawyers who have been disbarred and government contractors who have been convicted of tax evasion or worse. Take a contribution from one of these guys and the least of your problems is having to return the contribution.”

“With the ability today to instantaneously scrub every contribution and every contributor at the time the contribution is made, and before you deposit their money, there is no good reason to take money from bad guys.”

Aristotle’s service was used by both presidential nominees in 2008, national news organizations covering money and politics, and party committees.

“Campaigns have ten days to decline a contribution and return the amount, without having to report it to the FEC,” former FEC Chairman and Aristotle Senior Vice President of Compliance Services David Mason said. “The Aristotle system safeguards campaigns against embarrassing stories that could potentially derail a highly visible campaign.”

The Cardona scandal comes only weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision upholding the ban on political contributions to candidates for public office and political organizations by foreign nationals. (Bluman v. FEC.)  The decision means that foreign nationals, other than lawful permanent residents, are completely banned from donating to candidates or parties, or making independent expenditures in federal, state or local elections. Aristotle’s technology vets donors against the company’s nationwide registered voter list and other files to confirm  the donor is a U.S. citizen and has not exceed the personal contribution limits.  Campaign treasurers utilizing Aristotle are provided real time information that enables them to flag suspect contributions, contact the donor and, if necessary, return or reject the contribution as required by the Federal Election Commission.

Aristotle’s platform incorporates detailed state contributor and voter lists with highly accurate consumer databases to illuminate exactly how much a donor has given, how much they can give, and to suggest the maximum they might agree to contribute where allowed by law. This can significantly aid the campaign in satisfying ‘best efforts’ provisions that are required of all federal political committee treasurers.[1]

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About Aristotle

Aristotle has delivered smarter tools to political campaigns since 1983. Every U.S. President — Democrat and Republican — from Reagan through Obama, has used Aristotle products and/or services, as have many U.S. Senators, members of the U.S. House of Representatives, Democratic and Republican state party organizations and other major campaigns worldwide.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16467412

Media Contact: Brandi Travis, (202) 903-4221

Emails to Legislators from SuperVoters and FatCats Grab Attention
Aristotle previews ‘game-changing technology’ for separating grass tops from Astroturf

Miami, FL (February 3, 2012) — At the National Grassroots Conference in Miami this week, non-partisan political technology powerhouse Aristotle International unveiled what many representatives of the nation’s most effective advocacy groups are heralding as a powerful new weapon  for influencing legislative battles on Capitol Hill.

The software, called VerifiedVoter™, stamps an electronic watermark on emails being sent to Hill offices designating that the author of the email is a real, live registered voter rather than a computer-generated form letter. The system also flags emails coming from a ‘SuperVoter’ (one who votes in primaries) and a ‘Fat Cat’ (one who has a history of donating to political causes). The new data-mining tool relies on advanced algorithms that mine the Aristotle’s highly accurate lists of 187 million registered voters and 4.4 million political contributors.

The objective: to maximize the impact of emails coming from constituents with clout.  

Until now, organizations with a political interest have been sending their supporters, members or employees to government affairs websites where they are prompted to sign a petition or submit a form letter that is then sent to the congressional offices. Studies have shown that the deluge of emails from campaigns that generated thousands of identical comments on an issue have had diminishing impact. Offices are swamped with hundreds or sometimes thousands of emails on both sides of many topics. Legislative staffers sifting thru the mountains of often identical correspondence have taken to calling such campaigns ‘Astroturf’ as opposed to more genuine ‘grassroots’ expressions of support or opposition. The result has been that the impact of such emails is now widely discounted by those on the receiving end.

Elected officials are attuned to paying attention to what their constituents have to say, especially those who regularly vote and/or contribute to their re-election. With limited budgets and bandwidth, they are eager to focus their attention on responding to actual constituents.

With VerifiedVoter, grassroots directors for trade associations, advocacy organizations and issue-based groups who generate such correspondence in order to influence elected officials can maximize the impact of each email. Lobbyists for these organizations can produce a “Political Impact Statement” that totals up, in real-time, the political demographics of those writing on a particular issue in each district and present it to the congressional office.

Aristotle CEO John Aristotle Phillips said, “Elected officials get lots of emails on many issues. Positively identifying constituents and spotlighting why their opinion needs to be taken seriously, is the key. This technology is going to take grassroots campaigns to a new level. Legislators are more likely to respond to someone they know is a voting and/or contributing constituent in their district.”

Irica Solomon from the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies said, “It’s a game changer. It makes all the difference in the world if you’re getting hundreds of emails on a bill, to know which ones are coming from real live constituents who vote in primaries and have made political contributions. It’s that simple.”

Aristotle is also the first political data provider to offer data reflecting the 2012 congressional redistricting lines. Every ten years the Federal government conducts a national census and the official results from 2010 show that eight states have gained congressional seats and ten states have lost seats. Most other states that did not gain or lose a seat have changed, which means that the demographics have likely changed. It is invaluable for legislators, campaigns and advocacy groups to know where the lines fall and who is or is not in each district.

Read the full article from The Hill.