Thirsty for Change

Just like she told me, Bernice, an 86-year-old retired teacher, was waiting outside her green shuttered single-family house in suburban Cincinnati. She had not received her thrice-requested absentee ballot (she walks slowly with some difficulty), and with the deadline looming I offered her a ride to vote early.

Bernice, who as a black girl growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, worked in the cotton fields, told me about her faith in God as we drove downtown. She also told me that she had sat out the last election and hadn’t really been excited about a candidate since the campaign of Robert Kennedy.

This time would be different. When we arrived at the Board of Elections, the line snaked out the building and two blocks down the street. I took Bernice to the front of the line and the staffers got her situated in a chair and helped her with her ballot. That would take some 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I had been asked by the campaign to work the line, ensuring that people who are there to vote for Barack Obama stay and vote. The line was about an hour long, and a lot of people were taking time off from work. If they leave the line there’s a real possibility that we will lose their vote.

So I brought them water, asking “who is thirsty for change?” Schtick is important when working the line. You want people to have fun, though in this case everybody seemed to be in good spirits. The line had no defectors.

I also handed out “I voted early for Barack Obama stickers whcih were accepted by 90% of the approximately 300 people I talked to that day. And, most important, I signed up volunteers for the critical get-out-the-vote effort offering free pins and the strangely hard-to-find bumper stickers as incentives.

The early voting at Hamilton County is not be representative of overall voting. The Board of Education is located downtown where many minority and lower income people live and work. People in more Republican leaning suburban areas of the city are used to voting at their polling places and are waiting for Election Day.

Still, it’s a sight to see in Hamilton County: hundreds of fired up voters supporting the Democratic standard-bearer, and some uncomfortable Republicans. I did meet one pair of friends who were waiting in line to cancel each other’s vote. They showed affection and good humor to one another. I told the Obama supporter she had about 30 minutes left in line, and should use all of it to persuade her friend to join the winning team. And I offered him a button, which he refused with a smile.

Tune in later today for photos and updates from the line.

Frampton Comes Alive!

Barack Obama has a campaign that is running smoothly at every level, from the perfect pitch of yesterday’s campaign infomercial to the urgent calm here at street level in the Cincinnati office. It sure does help to be winning.

Outside the Obama office, previously a storefront pharmacy, were several large boxes surrounded by teams of volunteers working at curbside. Inside those boxes were 30,000 thin metal bars, the skeletons of lawn signs soon to be born.

I donned some protective gloves and got to work bundling the bars in manageable packages of ten and twenty apiece, perfecting a method of accurately estimating the count and then evening out the bundle using the bended ends as guides. I then asked a volunteer to do nothing but tape the bundles as quickly as I could produce them. (Thank you Henry Ford!)

My bundle taper was a local man in his fifties who came out to the very first Obama organizing meeting in Cincinnati. This was back in the middle of 2007, well before things started heating up. He had been involved in ballot initiatives and electoral politics for years, and was expecting a few dozen diehards to show up. The crowd swelled to about 600.

After we finished, I headed inside as phone bankers making another round of ballot-chase calls. I was handed a culled list of about 30 voters who had not received their ballots, or who had not ordered them. I called through the list and made appointments with four ladies, all in their eighties, who really needed to get those ballots because they were unable to get themselves to their polling place.

But another lady was too sick to leave the house, and hadn’t yet applied for a ballot, and time is running out. By law, all absentee ballots are mailed to the address on file and must be returned postmarked by election day.

So I called the Board of Elections and got some surprising results. First, my call was answered right away. Second, the woman I spoke to told me to leave a message for Patricia, who was in charge of elderly and nursing home voters. Third, Patricia called me back within the hour and arranged to have a duly authorized poll worker drive out the voter’s home the following day to allow her to vote early.

Patricia called me back later to confirm everything was all arranged, and we chatted about the importance of giving sick and elderly voters extra help to vote. I told her I would serve as the point person for any elderly Hamilton county person who needed a ride. The Obama campaign has a statewide hotline for voters who need rides on election day, but I figured it would be good for the board of elections to have a local point person.

In a time where election officials are routinely attacked (sometimes deservedly) for their handling of an election, I have nothing but praise so far for the Hamilton Board of Elections.

As I left the campaign office for the evening, it was reported to me that earlier in the afternoon we had a visit from Cincinnati transplant Peter Frampton, who was coming by to pick up a few of the recently-assembled yard signs.

Barack Obama Visits ‘Hick’ Town

Check out this get-out-the vote teaser for ‘Hick Town’, an upcoming documentary about John Hickenlooper, the popular mayor of Denver. It includes some backstage clips of Sen. Obama arriving to speak before 100,000 people in the state capital. 

During the 2008 Democratic convention, I spent some time with my old friend, filmmaker George Hickenlooper, who is the mayor’s cousin. George is directing the documentary and was in town to do a few weeks of shooting.

About a year before, after I had first sent out a mass email asking my friends to join me in supporting Sen. Obama, it was George who shot back back with a critique of Obama’s position on Iraq. George has long held conservative views and has voted for many Republicans.

Of the hundreds of people I reached out to, George was the only one who engaged me in a substantive debate. And while most of my friends typically vote Democratic, this was way before the primaries when Obama was trailing Sen. Clinton by something like 20 points.

In June 2008, I discovered through a Facebook post by George (who, by the way, has a large and eclectic group of Facebook “friends”) that he was supporting Obama. I took this as a hugely positive sign. If Obama could get intellectual conservatives like George, he had a shot at the presidency.

Phoning It In

I few days ago I reported that the Obama volunteers in Cincinnati were calling absentee voters to urge them to return their completed ballots. They have a lot of work cut out for them. 103,858 people in Hamilton County have requested them, but as of this past Monday only 60% had been returned.

In the past, absentee voters tended to lean Republican, in part because a lot of military personnel voted absentee and they lean Republican. Also voters in wealthier, Republican-leaning suburban areas tend to move less often then their Democratic-leaning, urban counterparts. They also may have just been better organized by their party.

But all that seems to have changed. New early voting options combined with the massive voter registration and early voting campaign led by the Obama have driven a surge in absentee and early voting. Early Obama voters are leading early McCain voters nationwide by a small margin. But in some swing states, the lead is much larger. We should have a lot more polling on this in the coming days.

In Georgia, Louisiana, and North Carolina the total early vote has already exceeded the 2004 vote. Not surprisingly, these are states with enormous black populations. Observations from friends in these states confirms what I have witnessed here in Cincinnati. Blacks are voting early in large numbers.

A grad student making calls yesterday reached one elderly voter who claimed her form didn’t include Barack Obama’s name. It was hard to tell if she was looking at the official ballot or not. The student suggested that she vote early, but she was unable to drive herself. So he an I hopped into the Obama Mini Cooper and gave her some door-to-door service to the board of elections.

When we got there, at about 2:00 p.m., the line was out the door and halfway down the block. This is the longest line I’ve seen so far. But it was moving quickly. Nevertheless, our voter was just a few days away from her 86th birthday, so we were able to bypass the line.

By the time I got back to the campaign office about an hour later, it was teeming with volunteers. New cell phones arrived just in time for the increased volume of callers. The campaign will probably rent a phone bank on election day for the massive phone blitz that is planned.

Down in Florida, even Joe Biden was hitting the phones in Titusville, Florida. The coverage of this kind of roll-up-your-sleeves work is always good. But just as important is the word-of-mouth publicity. (“I know someone who actually got a call from Joe Biden. No not a robo-call. The real Joe Biden!”)

Joe Biden phone banking in Florida

Compare Biden’s phone banking story with one about the McCain campaign on Monday. Dozens of paid telemarketers at a phone bank in Indiana (where robo-calls are illegal) refused to read a script that criticized “Obama for being “dangerously weak on crime,” “coddling criminals,” and for voting against “protecting children from danger.” The workers were not fired, but lost a day’s pay. 

These people are heroes that deserve our gratitude. In rejecting McCain’s campaign of division and hate, at a real personal cost no less, they reflect what I believe are the true American values. 

As a great Republican one said:

We are not enemies, but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained it must not break our bonds of affection. The mystic chords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land, will yet swell the chorus of the Union, when again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.

Campaign Bears Fruit

Here’s a special New Hampshire report from my friend Sue-Ellen, a classical musician and past president of the musician’s union in Boston:

“Hi Todd. I’ve been plugging away back here. Each weekend it’s been looking better and better in NH – more swing voters turning to Obama, more people wanting to help with the campaign. Still, I meet mostly McCain/Sununu folks; or the sometimes McCain/Shaheen voters; but there’re always at least 1 or 2 swing voters who shift after talking. And I REALLY lucked out last weekend – came away with buckets full of beautiful fruit after visiting this incredibly sweet Lebanese guy, went to French schools growing up, has a Greek wife, both registered Republicans, passionate fruit farmer (lovingly tends asian pears, apples, etc. on his huge property) – and they’ll definitely vote for Barack!”

Go Sue-Ellen!

1.5 Million Strong

After a long weekend of canvassing, I am kicking back by doing some data entry here at the Obama field office. By noon there were about 40 people here, most working the phones reaching out to Obama supporters who haven’t returned their absentee ballots back yet.

I’m sitting on well-worn couch across from a college student who has returned to work on the campaign for the final week. He just spent 25 minutes talking to an 81-year-old woman who has voted every year of her life, but who hasn’t received her absentee ballot. He is trying to persuade her to accept a ride to the board of elections to straighten out the problem and vote, before she leaves on a trip later in the week.

Meanwhile the fellow sitting to my left is reminding a voter to use a 59-cent stamp to ensure that her ballot is not returned by the post office. 

This is retail politics, getting one voter at a time registered, persuaded, and to the polling place by any [legal] means necessary. It’s the kind of work that no speech, debate, or TV advertisement can accomplish. Only staff and volunteers can do it.

Luckily the Obama campaign has about 1.5 million volunteers ready to work between now and election day. That should help a lot. But for those readers who haven’t yet volunteered want to help, please contact me and I will get you signed up. Wherever you live, we have work for you at home, in your neighborhood, or in nearby swing state. I promise you will enjoy it, and it will make a difference.

Good Pie

After a full day canvassing Brown county, my New York crew and I settled in for a meal at the fireside restaurant in Georgetown. This restaurant was made famous when Barack Obama stopped by during his recent Ohio bus tour. He liked the pie.

We knocked 97 doors and spoke to 58 people. Obama led McCain 3 to 2 in those who declared their preference. This is not a random sample but it’s nevertheless pretty encouraging.

This area is very rural and the folks here are suffering from the hard economic times. Most of the supporters we talked to were lifelong republicans who were voting Obama for the first time.

Charles a 73-year-old diehard Democrat told us he couldn’t vote because he wasn’t sure he would be able to get to the polls. He told us he was diagnosed with colon cancer and was given five months to live. But he was glad to have visitors and we talked politics for awhile while CNN blared on the TV. By the time we left Charles had arranged a ride to vote early at the county seat.

Slammed

My New York crew flew in early and was ready to canvass by 10:00 a.m. Becca, and her friend Prakash, joined my team headed for Loveland.

Becca and I hit one house where a friendly baseball-capped 64-year old names Chris answered the door.

Before he got a chance to speak, his wife came to the door and said they were voting McCain, grabbed her husband by the arm and slammed the door in our faces.

Listen

Since it was raining yesterday, I joined the phone bank instead of hitting the road to canvass face-to-face. The phone calls are divided into day and night calls, and during the day you tend to get older people, stay-at-home parents, and to a lesser extent the self-employed or unemployed.

But one thing is certain. It’s hard to get people on the phone at all. In Ohio, people are used to getting barraged by campaign ads and phone bank calls at this late stage of a presidential contest. Most people don’t answer their phones. One even had a message saying they would not pick up their phone until after the election.

Of the 80 people I dialed over three hours, I spoke only to eight, and had a substantive discussion with just two.

One was an independent voter who was voting for Sen. Obama because he disliked the way Sen. McCain conducted his campaign. One was a Republican who was voting for McCain. A couple of others were Obama voters. One woman in her fifties said she was still working on her conservative husband.

And then there was Ina, who I spoke to for about 10 minutes about issues that concerned this 85-year-old, Chinese-American. She was decidedly undecided. She said neither candidate had been addressing the concerns of seniors in enough detail to get her vote. She didn’t care about party affiliation. She would vote for the person who had the best plans to help seniors like her who were concerned with their survival.

As I talked with Ina, breaking down Obama’s plans for seniors, it became clear to me that she had been paying close attention to the campaign and was not going to be persuaded easily. Since she stayed at home a lot, she watched cable television news, saw all the debates, and was probably exposed to hundreds of ads in the last few weeks. She also knew exactly what issues were important to her:  social security and medicare.

So rather than pitch her on the plans, we just talked for a while and I heard about some of her struggles and experiences. Mostly I listened. 

I consider myself very adept at reading people, but I have no idea who Ina will vote. She did not betray any leanings. But she thanked me for volunteering and promised she would vote.

Sometimes the candidate someone chooses comes down to who took the time to call and hear them out. People like to be heard. Who knows? Maybe Ina is one of those people, and will remember our chat when she goes to the polls on November 4.

Very Lucky

Since I started working as volunteer in Ohio some four weeks ago, the Ohio state polls have been fluctuating between +2 McCain and +7 Obama, with the average being somewhere around +2 Obama. Then on Wednesday night, I left on a business trip. Apparently everything has changed in the 24 hours I was away.

The University of Wisconsin and Quinnipiac came out with polls showing double digit leads for Obama in Ohio, +12 and +14 respectively. Their other swing state findings—including newly minted swing state indiana, with Obama + 10 and another pollster showing Obama +4—are astonishing.

Last fall, when I met Sen. Obama at a small fundraiser in New York, I asked him why he felt he would be a stronger candidate. He told me he believed that Clinton, who he admired as a smart, tough politician, would pursue a 50%+1 electoral strategy and that such a strategy might well win her the presidency. But he had a different strategy an he was going to compete in every state, with a positive, unifying message. The goal was to build a broader coalition and get a true mandate so that he could not just win the presidency, but also govern effectively once he did.

That level of ambition seemed a little like wishful thinking back then, as he was trailing by double digits in the primary. But it showed the kind of clear thinking and vision that makes Obama such a compelling politician.

Based on the slew of current polls coming out, it seems like Obama’s strategy is working. You have to give a lot of credit to the campaign for staying focused on their strategy, and to Obama for staying cool and focused on message in the face of continued attacks and distractions. The ground operation is no different.

I arrived back home to Cincinnati in the late evening and made my way to the Obama Mini Cooper that was parked outside. As I paid the cashier, she noticed the Obama magnet and told me she liked him too. A Korean immigrant, she spoke with a thick accent and claimed that she wasn’t educated about politics.  But she said that Ted Kennedy and Caroline Kennedy were supporting him, and so was Oprah. But more importantly, as she put it, “George W. Bush has made a mess of the last eight years. Obama is very lucky. He is going to win.”