Just about a year ago, San Francisco School Board President Norman Yee was one of the first candidates I cold-called about using NationBuilder for a campaign. I've followed San Francisco politics for a long time and knew Yee as a respected official and his District 7 supervisor bid would be serious. (I called all of the District 7 candidates I could find, actually, and dark horse candidate Glenn Rogers also used NationBuilder in the race.)

When I talked to Yee last November, he said his family was helping with his website and he planned to make a decision in January. When he started his nation in late January, he became on of the first of scores of San Francisco candidates and campaigns to adopt our organizing technology.

Preliminary vote tallies gave Yee the lead in early returns in the District 7 race tonight.

Yee, whose NationBuilder website was featured in a Fast Company article about election technology, was also an early adopter of NationBuilder’s free voter file.

Last month, Anthony Valdez from the Yee campaign told us they had the strongest grassroots campaign in the race, and that they were using the voter file to easily connect activity from email and the website to important supporters. They also brought iPads to their fundraisers to allow quick donations through their nation.

"Everything works together, from uploading supports into a list to recruiting volunteers, to donations," said Valdez. "We've been able to use the features on the front page to show all of Norman's community involvement over the past 30 years."