Organizing for America | Alexandra Woods's Blog: Calling Ohio can win the election for Obama!!

Calling Ohio can win the election for Obama!!

By Alexandra - Oct 2nd, 2008 at 11:53 pm EDT

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Hello,

I just participated in a half hour online training with the Obama campaign's Neighbor to Neighbor program. Briefly, this particular Neighbor to Neighbor initiative is focusing on the state of Ohio. The Obama people say that Senator Obama has 256 "likely" to "solid" electoral votes. With Ohio, which has 18 electoral votes, he gets the 274 he needs to win.

Ohio has recently instituted an early voting system which allows people to start voting as of yesterday, September 30th. People in Ohio can register to vote until October 6. There is a new system in this state called "One Stop Voting" which allows people to register AND to vote at the same time. With one stop voting, which is of course available to voters of all political persuasions, Ohio will no longer be notorious for 8 hour voting lines as occurred all across the state in 2004.

The superior organization of the Obama campaign in particular is posing a huge threat to the Republicans. They have have mounted three law suits against this new system, all of which have lost in the courts. The Republicans appealed. Their appeal was turned down

In 2004, Kerry lost Ohio to Bush by 118,601 votes. That equals a difference of 9 voters per precinct. As of last night hundreds of people (probably young people with strong backs...) conducted "sleep ins" in front of polling stations across the state, so that they could be the first to vote. If enough Ohioans register and vote in one step, and if enough already registered Ohioans vote early, the election could be won, technically, in a very short period of time, (barring disaster...I have to say that for superstitous reasons.)

You might want to check this Neighbor to Neighbor online program out, or pass the information on. There is a video on www.barackobama.com which explains how to do the Neighbor to Neighbor calling. It involves phoning people, from the warmth of your home or your office, who have been selected by the campaign. You can make as many or as few calls as you like. Then the task is to "canvass", which involves asking people a series of straightforward, scripted questions (with good room for improvisation) to get a sense of where they stand. You then enter your findings via a simple process online. The data is collected. After that, Obama canvassers in Ohio will contact the people who are leaning in his direction again.

I have participated in the face to face canvassing in PA twice, and will continue to do so. It is a fascinating, moving experience. The accuracy of the data collection process in even tiny campaign offices is remarkable. In PA, likely Obama voters are contacted FIVE TIMES in different ways all over the state. This is going on in every swing state across the country.

But right now the OHIO initiative is particularly exciting and vital, (and does not involve schlepping.)

Think about it!

Alexandra Woods

P.S.Send this great little video to people who may want to vote but don't know how fast they have to register! Get them to vote!
http://www.youtube.com/user/5friendsvote

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