Special political guests who came to congratulate Dr. Esam Omeish included Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Sharon Bulova, State Senator of VA 39th District George Barker, Drainesville District Board of Supervisors John Foust, and Maryland State Delegate Saqib Ali.
Click here to see photo gallery
I though I’d start posting some vote signs as election day is just around the corner and early voting is already underway in many states. If you can vote early, find your polling place and go do so!
I’ve provided these signs as ready-to-print PDFs in both standard letter paper (8½ by 11 inches) and larger tabloid paper (17 by 11 inches) sized versions. Every home printer can handle the standard paper size and most copy shops can print the larger tabloid size. See my How to Create Your Own Signs post for tips on how to make your own.
Letter (8½ by 11 inches) size…
Tabloid (17 by 11 inches) size…
I get many comments from people that want Obama signs, but have not been able to get one - either the order is taking a while to get processed and shipped, or they are unable to get to a campaign headquarters to get a sign, or their local headquarters are all out. This post walks you through the steps to create your own Obama signs.
First, you will need a version of the sign that you can download and print out. I’ve got several versions available for free download - some of the more popular ones are below…
The letter size signs can be printed out on just about any personal printer. Some consumer printers are capable of printing the larger tabloid size, though probably not most. If your printer cannot print the larger size don’t worry - almost all print/copy shops can print tabloid size.
I used FedEx Office (formerly Kinkos) to print out my signs, as they had a simple to use online printing site that let me upload the PDFs (I went with the larger tabloid size) directly to the website and pick them up at my local FedEx Office. Their online tool allowed me to pick out the type of paper - for signs I’d recommend a thicker cardstock paper (I opted for a glossy cardstock). The cost of the tabloid size printout was about $3.
Here’s the sign as it was printed…
If you want to put the sign outside, I’d strongly recommend laminating it. To make sure it is weather proof you will want to make sure that the laminate overlaps the edges of the sign making a water tight seal. To do this, I trimmed off the white edges from the printout and did the lamination myself (again I did mine at FedEx Office for about $4, though most copy shops can do lamination).
Below is my laminated version of the sign…
I opted to put my sign out in my front yard. Since I didn’t have anything to hang it from, I decided to stake it into the ground. I happened to have an old sign that I was able to use, though I think these go for about $3 at home improvement stores (maybe less if you can just get the metal posts)…
I use a wide transparent packing tape to adhere the metal posts to the back of the sign (I didn’t use the original “open house” part of the sign). Below is the attached sign, ready to go…
All that is left is to put the completed sign out in the yard…
If you have any comments, tips or suggestions for other supports feel free to leave a comment below.
They have many great designs, below is just a small sampling of some of my favorites…
Go check them out! To all the designers that have contributed - very nice work!
Update: Looking for yard signs? If so, check out our How to Create Your Own Signs post.
Here are some additional updated versions of the signs featuring the Obama Biden text with the “O” logo. These signs are ready-to-print PDFs and currently sized for tabloid sized paper (17 by 11 inches) - if you’re looking for standard letter sized paper (8½ by 11 inches) see my previous Free Printable Obama Biden Signs post. The contents of all the PDFs here are vector based and should scale up nicely if you wish to print at even larger sizes.
I’m providing this larger size to make it even easier to print out and display. Tabloid size is a common size that can be printed out at nearly every copy shop.
Small “O” large text…
Available in the following standard screen sizes: 1600x1200, 1280x1024, 1024x768 & 800x600. As well as the following 2 wide screen sizes: 1920x1200 & 1680x1050
They spoke of how Barack, during his multiple trips to the Southwest, has reminded them of RFK's famous connection to the voters of this region. They also spoke of how this moment, this election, will be remembered forever, and that you're going to want to say you did your part. Watch the video here:
Three days left folks. Get out the vote.
Registrars are open across Virginia today, click here to find out where and when your registrar is open for absentee voting.
After you vote, you should make sure that others get out and vote by signing up here. And if you do not have time today, you can still vote on TUESDAY NOVEMBER 4th!
Enjoy these pictures of people voting absentee in Richmond!
Grammy Award-winning recording artist and philanthropist Shawn “JAY-Z” Carter, media executive Kevin Liles, and entrepreneur, philanthropist and activist Russell Simmons will headline a “Last Chance for Change” GOTV rally Saturday, November 1 on behalf of U.S. Sen. Barack Obama at Virginia Union University.
Virginia Union University Barco-Stevens Hall (Gymnasium)1500 N. Lombardy StreetRichmond, VARSVP HERE:http://my.barackobama.com/page/s/vajayz
There are a lot of voters out there who are still undecided. If you or someone you know hasn't made up there mind yet and cares about a specific issue, check out the campaign’s new website on Barack’s plans for the issues that matter to Virginians.
The site allows voters to easily get more information on Barack’s policies, watch a video on each issue, and best of all easily share the plan with friends.
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, born and raised in Virginia, is a big fan of the site:
Young voters have registered in unprecedented numbers in Virginia this year, and could be key to turning the state blue for the first time in 40 years. That is exciting stuff, but it'll only happen if everyone gets out to vote on November 4th --- and if everyone brings their friends, roommates, and classmates to go vote with them. Check out pictures from the Dave Matthews show and then sign up to help make history by turning Virginia blue.
Eight days left!
Are you worried that McCain's smears may be gaining traction in your state or district? I've been worried about Ohio, so I wrote a series of replies to fight back. Please feel free to use one of my letters as a model and send your own letter-to-the-editor of a local paper. Time is running short: many papers have cut-off dates for election-related letters, so do it TODAY!Small town papers are a better bet for getting printed than big-city dailies that receive tons of letters. Also, those "pro-American" towns might need some balance about now. Find lists of newspapers here: http://www.50states.com/news/ and here: http://www.usnpl.com/It's always wise to check in advance if your paper has a length limit. They often don't tell you this on the website, so a quick phone call can save wasted time. Most will accept letters by email, so ask for the editor's (or relevant person's) direct address, too. Always include your address and phone number. They will not print these, but may call to verify that you are the sender.Please leave a comment to let others know where you've sent a letter. Of course, you can also revise any of these letters in your own words.
312 Words:
Dear Editor:
Among the kitchen sinks now being flung at Barack Obama is the charge that he wants to "spread the wealth around." Is that really such a terrible thing? Take a look at South America, where wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few super-rich families, while large percentages of the population live in poverty. Democracy suffers with the priveleged buying political favors on a scale US millionaires would like to become accustomed to. And studies have shown that extremes of economic inequality can lead to poor public health, higher rates of violent crime, and a lack of trust among individuals that creates a bad business climate for everyone. Even Alan Greenspan, hardly noted for socialist leanings, has stated that increasing income inequality in America is a "very disturbing trend."
Indeed, America is one of a very few developed countries where income inequality has increased since the 1980s. Stangating wages, union-busting, limited social services, and the decline of progressive taxation are cited among the factors for this trend. Between 1980 and 2005, the average after-tax income for the richest 1% of Americans went up by 176%, compared to an increase ranging from 20% to just 6% for the less affluent majority. Back in 1982, a CEO's pay was roughly 42 times the average wage of his company's workers; in 2004 it was 430 times more, according to CNNMoney.com.
John McCain should realize that "spreading the wealth" is nothing new. For the past 30 years it's been spreading steadily upward from the many to the few. That trickle-up effect has hardly led to good jobs, retirement security, or reliable health care for most Americans. Concentrated wealth in the hands of those who already have more than they need led to the demand for new, risky investment opportunities, the housing bubble, and ongoing collapse of our financial system.
I'm a lot less firghtened of spreading the wealth back down, than I am of more policies like the ones that got us in this mess.
We just sent out this e-mail:
Dear Scott,This is it. Get out the vote -- the final stage of a historic campaign here in Virginia -- has begun. This is when we prove that what we've built is real and can deliver the change America needs.We've talked to thousands of undecided Virginians and formed neighborhood teams to spread our message of change throughout our communities. But all of this work means nothing if we don't get people out to vote.Watch this short video about our strategy to win the commonwealth and sign up for a volunteer shift to get out the vote:We have the chance to make history here in Virginia. This is your chance to be a part of it.This plan won't work without you. What you do or don't do in the next two weeks will decide the outcome of this race.We can't risk waking up on November 5th to four more years of the same failed policies and the same cynical politics.Sign up for a shift and do your part in bringing this campaign across the finish line:http://va.barackobama.com/GOTVThis is our moment. We've worked too hard to let this slip through our hands now.Thanks,MitchMitch StewartVirginia State DirectorObama for AmericaP.S. -- If you will be gone from your locality on Election Day, or will be commuting to work 11 out of the 13 hours on November 4th, you can vote right now. Find out how:http://va.barackobama.com/voteearly
Dear Scott,This is it. Get out the vote -- the final stage of a historic campaign here in Virginia -- has begun. This is when we prove that what we've built is real and can deliver the change America needs.We've talked to thousands of undecided Virginians and formed neighborhood teams to spread our message of change throughout our communities. But all of this work means nothing if we don't get people out to vote.Watch this short video about our strategy to win the commonwealth and sign up for a volunteer shift to get out the vote:
Virginia, we have 13 days. Can you believe it? At the Richmond rally today Senator Obama reminded us that a lot can happen in 13 days and we need all the help we can get!
Thank you Ian Graham for some of these great pictures.
Sign up for Get Out the Vote! Some pictures from today . . .
For anyone looking for a higher resolution versions of the Obama Biden logo, I thought I would share some that I created from the PDF on the downloads section.
Below are thumbnails of the high-resolution images - click any one to where you can download them.
Note that I also have several PDFs available ready to print - these are vector based and size up without jaggies.
Fellow Obama Campaigners:
I've heard many of my fellow campaign volunteers say that their canvassing mission was to identify Obama, McCain, and Undecided voters in their nieghborhood and then focus on persuading the undecided voters to vote for Obama. This is the first step in Canvassing but there is much more that needs to be done to win the election for Obama. It is then important to not only persuade the undecided voters but it is even more important to firm up uncertain and waivering voters and then to turn out the vote on election day as we move closer to the election. The Obama campaign has been successful in our voter registration drive, but we can now bolster the Obama vote by getting voters to the polls or helping them get absentee ballots if it will be hard to get themselves to the Polls on November 4.
My last blog was an update on the most recent National and Virginia Polls. The good news is that Obama has made significant gains in the Polls putting him in the lead. The bad news is that the Obama vote is much softer than McCain vote with many more uncertain voters who could still change their mind prior to election day. As shown in the table below breaking down likely voters in Virgini, 47% of those voters leaning to Obama reported that they might still change their mind compared to 39% of McCain voters who might change their minds. Conversely, 55% of Obama voters said that their vote was firm with their minds made up, compared to 44% of McCain voters who were firm. So we still have work to do to convince Obama leaners to finally decide for Obama-Biden and progressive change in America. In the table below I estimated the combined undecided and uncertain (voters who could change their mind) for each segment of the voter population and highlighted in Red the largest blocks of votes we should be targeting for canvassing efforts.
An even bigger block of available votes is just turning out all or most of the Obama Voters on election day or absentee balloting. Usually only 60-70% of eligible registered voters actually vote in a Presidential Election year in Virginia. So I estimated the percentage of Obama voters in each voting group that would probably not show up at the polls to vote on election day even assuming a high turnout of 70% for this election. It is obvious that this is the largest pool of available Obama votes if we can just get out the registered non-voters on election day or even half of them. A historic turnout would work in favor of Obama and change it America. So be sure to canvas pro-Obama voters as we move down the road to election day. WE CAN DO IT!
I will look at the National Data as well if anyone out their is interested (Message Me). I will also point out some other trends in the data in future blogs so let me know if you have any questions.
The data I used in the table below is from SurveyUSA which interviewed 900 Virginia adults 10/04/08 and 10/05/08. Of the adults, 832 were registered to vote. Of the registered voters, 666 were determined by SurveyUSA to be likely voters in the 11/04/08 general election. Virginia has 13 Electoral College votes. George W. Bush carried Virginia by 8 points in both 2004 and 2000. Virginia last cast its Electoral College votes for a Democratic Presidential candidate in 1964, when Lyndon Johnson defeated Barry Goldwater. So we still have our work cut out to Win Virginia for Obama.
Regards,
Tom Kuehn
Virginia Voters Obama McCain Other Undecided* % of Voters Soft Votes Get Out All the in Play* Pro Obama Vote
All 53% 43% 3% 1% 100% 12% 16% Gender Men 54% 43% 2% 2% 48% 6.2% 8% Women 53% 43% 3% 1% 52% 6.2% 8% Age
18-34 67% 27% 6% 0% 23% 3% 6%
