What I See On The Ground

Colorado Notes:
I have been trained three times. Barack Obama’s get-out-the-vote effort is so sophisticated that each time I volunteer to work the phone banks, a new script has been refined and developed as necessary.

For example, the first time I made calls, I contacted new Democrats or registered Unaffiliated voters and asked them for their support of Barack Obama. Many of the calls reached answering machines, so we didn’t waste voter’s time with left messages. When a live voice did pick up, the conversation always seemed to go well. If the voter was an Obama supporter, I tried getting voters to commit to a mail-in ballot. This is one option in Colorado, and it encourages early voting. Obama is banking as many of these early votes as possible because the campaign expects massive irregularities and “voter exclusions” due to long lines and or actual planned voter exclusion on election day.

The second time I arrived, I was trained to only contact new voters who had already received a mail-in ballot. My goals were three-fold: identify supporters and remind them to send-in that ballot. Most importantly, Colorado requires newly registered voters to mail in a copy of their Colorado Driver’s License or a U.S. Passport, or a statement that includes the last four numbers of their Social Security Number. So I informed them.

Indeed, Colorado has a lot of confusing requirements for new voters. Twice in the last two years, different Republican Secretary of States (the first retired to the oil and gas industry), have purged what the NY Times estimated as up to a third of all Colorado registered voters due to identification technicalities or possible matches on illegal voters (immigrants or felons). The possible match concept is wonderfully vague and dubious. If you are a citizen with a name of Jose Martinez, there is a pretty good chance you were purged because another Jose Martinez got bounced off the voter roles for having improper ID, and heck, you just can’t be sure which Jose Martinez is improper, so you better remove them all. Voter purges and the voter exclusions by Republican operatives on election day are so back-channeled and secretive that only insiders see the magnitude (they make “voter fraud” and the Acorn mess look paltry).

Obama has countered this of course by registering hundreds of thousands of new voters. I did my part in Oregon by registering many of my students. I think in the end, Hillary did wonders for the Obama campaign by staying in as long as she did. Her participation also registered thousands of new Democrats, and despite what the media might suggest, most of her votes will go to Obama.

My third training was the most intensive. I had to leave messages if no one answered. This was the day I called people to tell them that the Secretary of State had removed them from the voter ranks on a technicality, and if they still wanted their vote to count, they had just one week to correct the error. Fortunately, maybe two/thirds of the people I reached were willing to go to the State website and download a correction form or had already received a letter and acted on it. My wife found out there was a glitch in her registration (mysterious wrong zip code) and also had to go through this process. I am left to wonder though how many people are willing to register, re-register, and then vote. It can be difficult when life is happening, right?

On Canvassing: our get-out-the-vote-effort includes the same door-to-door work you saw Obama himself doing in Ohio (yes, when he ran into Joe The Not-Really-A-Plumber). Last weekend and again tomorrow, I will knock on doors of the Unaffiliated voters and try to get their support. At one apartment I met an Obama supporter and her live-in boyfriend who was one of those mysterious Undecideds. I asked the Undecided Voter what he wanted in his candidate, and he was just really proud of not knowing who he wanted to vote for, that he was really independent, and said he didn’t really have time to “research” all the issues. I left by joking to the Obama supporter, “Work on him for us will you?”

I am not alone in my pilgrimage from a Blue State to a Swing State. Everyday more volunteers show up at the Obama office, many like me, coming from a State that doesn’t seem to matter. People are pouring in from out-of-State. I have met women from Texas and Georgia, a man from New York, and more, always from non-Swing States. I make calls sitting next to retirees and college kids. Here is a confession. The Obama campaign has some demographic information about each person we call. I do notice that I hesitate before picking up the phone when the Unaffiliated voter is a male over the age of 34. I am always worried to reach a staunch Conservative like Joe The Not-Really-A-Plumber who is afraid of “Obama the Socialist.” I guess these people dream of the day they will be in a higher tax bracket, so they vote against their own interest (and with Obama’s plan - lower taxes), because they are against class welfare. Then I realize that I am a male over the age of 34, and that new data shows that men are starting to lean Obama. I am also reminded that I have actually only reached one such man who thought Obama was a socialist. I am polite. I thanked him for his time. Then I picked up the phone and dialed again.


Yesterday the phone rang at our rented apartment. A robo-call from the Republican National Convention telling me that Obama has a buddy named Bill Ayers that bombed America. Later on television I saw a 504-Group Ad for McCain starring Reverend Wright. I keep thinking, thank goodness Obama did not take public financing. McCain’s swift-boat-like proxies are making-up the money-gap, but Obama’s individual donors have remained steady. Yet for all McCain’s attempts to blast Obama’s character, when I reach a voter who wants to chat, it is then I believe, most encouragingly, that Obama will win. Most people I talk to are worried about the economy. They want new energy sources and worry about inflation. They are concerned about their retirement. They want to bring an end to spending money on war. It has never been about associations and character (although you know Obama's character is impeccable).


The endgame. In volunteering so much time for Obama, I just cannot conceive of a McCain victory, unless there is something particularly corrupt about our election procedures OR if we are as racist a nation as some would have you believe. I know, I know, the poll numbers are shifting again. Today (Friday) most of the networks have a new narrative. The focus is on a McCain comeback. The polls are narrowing they will tell you. Etcetera. Yet this is what I see and know: I now admire the candidate Obama so much more because I can document the efforts and leadership his campaign has maintained. I realize what an organized and expert President he will be. Obama has 40 offices in Colorado like the one I work for; I know he has similar efforts all across the country. His volunteers outnumber McCain’s by the thousands. He has offices in Red States like Georgia and Louisiana, and will be competitive in Red States like Indiana, North Carolina, and even West Virginia. This will make all the difference on election day. I found out that at each polling place we will have coordinated poll watchers to defend the voter’s right to vote. I also am privy to our election strategy to get people to the polls once early voting begins here is Colorado and of course, on election day. This is all very good news…

This is what I see on the ground …

An Obama victory in November.