YES WE CAN! DC for Obama Volunteer Summit
Nearly 200 campaign volunteers from across the Washington, DC, area came together to decide the role they want to play to help realize the vision that President Elect Obama articulated during the election. The volunteers were convened at a "Yes We Can Summit" on Saturday, December 13, at George Washington University by DC for Obama, a volunteer organization that mobilized several thousand DC-area supporters to knock on more than 100,000 doors for Barack Obama during the presidential campaign. Participants at the "Yes We Can Summit" set priorities for the future of the local grassroots organization. In small groups, the Obama supporters worked with facilitators to share their experience from the campaign and discuss the issues on which they'd like to work. Electronic keypad polling was used to identify the collective goals of the group. The “Yes We Can Summit” used a methodology developed by the nonprofit organization AmericaSpeaks called a 21st Century Town Meeting, which integrates technology with authentic deliberation to help groups identify collective priorities. Who Participated?
Local and National IssuesParticipants were asked to use their polling keypads to identify the local and national issues about which they were most passionate. Health care received the most support, followed by foreign policy/national security/Iraq, energy/environment, economy/jobs, and education. Other national issues received less support, including international development and housing/poverty. The local issue that received by far the greatest support was education and youth issues (almost twice as many votes as any other). Voting rights, homelessness and poverty, health care, affordable housing, crime/public safety, and community vitality received moderate support. More than half of participants said they were most interested in working on national policy advocacy with 22% saying they were most interested in local community service projects and 18% saying they were most interested in local policy advocacy. Optimism about Making an ImpactForty-five percent of participants said they were “very optimistic” about the ability of local volunteers to make a meaningful contribution. Forty-four percent said they were “optimistic.” Elevent percent said they were :neutral” and one percent said they were “very pessimistic.” Memories and HopesSummit participants began the day by sharing their favorite memories of the campaign and their greatest hopes for the future. Examples of favorite memories included:
Room-wide themes that emerged from the discussion of hopes for the future included:
One Year Vision for the FutureSummit participants spent time working in small groups to develop a one year vision for the organization. The following large-group themes emerged from the discussions:Promote national and local advocacyDevelop a large and diverse grassroots membershipPartner with local organizations to address underserved communities on education, health care and povertyAct as a clearinghouse for local and national civic associationsCollaborate with the administrationRecruit and retain volunteers for community service projectsUse metrics to ensure vision is being implementedEighty eight percent of participants said they were “supportive” or “very supportive” of the vision. Community Service ProjectsFollowing a presentation from the chair of the DC for Obama Community Service Committee, participants discussed the criteria that should be used to select Community Service projects and identified potential projects that could be taken on that could show a meaningful impact in the next year. Room-wide themes that emerged from the discussion about Community Service criteria included:
Hundreds of ideas were generated for Community Service projects through the table discussions. While each of these ideas will be read by the Community Service committee, a set of projects were identified as being most common from across the room. Participants used their polling keypads to identify the projects among this list that they preferred. By far the project that received the greatest support from participants was to create and support tutoring and mentoring programs for youth with measurable results. This was followed by building job training programs (specifically green jobs), registering, educating and empowering voters, and developing relationships with specific schools and letting school officials tell us what they need. Other priorities that received less support included surveying weaknesses in DC health care system and volunteering to fill in the gaps, and cleaning up and beautifying neighborhoods.Nineteen percent of participants said their top priority project was not among the room-wide list. Advocacy ProjectsFollowing a presentation from the chair of the DC for Obama Advocacy Committee, participants discussed the criteria that should be used to select Advocacy projects and identified potential projects that could be taken on that could show a meaningful impact in the next year. Room-wide themes that emerged from the discussion about Advocacy criteria included:
Hundreds of ideas were generated for Advocacy projects through the table discussions. While each of these ideas will be read by the Advocacy committee, a set of projects were identified as being most common from across the room. Participants used their polling keypads to identify the projects among this list that they preferred.The two advocacy projects that received the strongest support were promoting DC voting rights and advocating for affordable housing, homeless services and poverty support. These were followed by working to improve health care and improving global perceptions of America through foreign aid and diplomacy. Advocacy projects that received less support included advancing community education on tipics such as financial literacy and parental involvement, increasing funding on education reform, supporting HIV/AIDS organizations that provide testing and services, increasing support for tutoring and mentoring programs for DC students, and rallying DC residents to increase the rate of recycling.Eight percent of participants said their top project was not among the list of room-wide themes. Our NameParticipants at the Summit decided to consider a new name for the organization. After talking about the kind of message that their name should convey, they generated 16 options in addition to DC for Obama:
Following a series of votes to identify top choices, the two names that received the greatest support were Yes We Can DC (48%) and DC for Obama (44%). Commitments and EvaluationsAt the end of the day, participants signed up to participate on DC for Obama committees and made personal commitments for the future. Participants were also asked to use their polling keypads to answer two final evaluation questions. 85% of participants rated the meeting as “very good” or “good” with the remaining participants rating it “fair.” 84% of participants said they were “very committed” or “committed” to the outcomes of the day’s meeting with 12% saying they were “somewhat committed” and 4% saying they were “unsure” or “not committed.”Special ThanksSpecial thanks to the College Democrats of George Washington University for helping to support the event and to AmericaSpeaks for donating keypad polling technology as well as staff support. Thanks to the dozens of volunteers who made the Summit possible and who will continue to be the heart and soul of DC for Obama.
Today is about hope. And change. I'm thinking of this as I see McCain supporters working out of the building next door. They are working on getting Yes on 8 passed here in California. And, to get McCain votes in Nevada.
But, a few friends and I have been calling people to let them know where the polling places are. I've been calling Montana. Many people aren't home, or it's been a wrong number, but a few people there have said they already voted for Obama, and know many others who are voting for Obama. This is encouraging. I spent 6 years of my early life in Montana, and would only think that people in Missoula and Bozeman would be voting for Obama. Thank goodness in small towns like Libby and Three Forks, people are casting their votes for change.
So, tonight, let's say cheers to change, and here's to hope. We'll raise our glasses as a record number of voters have gone to the polls and voted. And, that they voted for change.
Try our game We the Decided 2008© at
http://mypakragames.com/games/we-the- decided/index.html
where we ask you to play and pick the position of the candidate that best matches yours and then see who is leading. Enter your data after you play and then you can come back everyday to track the polling of the game-play results. Although this is not a representative sample, until many and all start playing, it takes away the framing bias of all poll questions. Enjoy and comment back here or on our Facebook account PAKRA Games.
Start a dsicussion here. Learn the issues. Mobilise folks to vote.
The “comic” is great! Contribute if you can, download it, read it, print it and distribute it!
You can read more from Palast and RFK, Jr. at www.gregpalast.com and in Rolling Stone.
If you have high-speed Internet, check out this video by Palast in NYC, 2007, on the subject of Voter Fraud, 2004 style: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=du9QWpCWbbY&NR=1
We can win, but only by getting out the vote and vigilantly montitoring the polling places
If you appreciaterd this message, then please have a look at the rest of my blog, http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/blog/henrymu and support and contribute to the campaign (it’s not over until the polls close): http://tinyurl.com/henrym4obamafundraising
Henry M
--- On Tue, 10/21/08, Greg Palast <palast@gregpalast.net> wrote:From: Greg Palast <palast@gregpalast.net>Free! Steal Back Your Vote Investigative Comic
Maybe it's not a free nation anymore - but at least it's a free comic book.
STEAL BACK YOUR VOTE, the investigative comic book voter guide by Bobby Kennedy and me is now available to download for free free free at StealBackYourVote.org. (That's thanks to your generous donations to date.) And now you can get packs of the full-color print edition for the cost of printing and shipping. Less than a buck a book. And we'll shoot it to you right now by priority mail.
Officially, 2.7 million voters have been purged from the voter rolls since the last election. And those voters weren't vanished by ACORN or Mickey Mouse. 'The Purge'n General," "Nuns on the Run" and "Votes Gone Rotten."
What's so funny about the death of Democracy? Would you rather CRY? Based on my investigation with Kennedy in the current issue of Rolling Stone. Featuring art by the graphic gonzo's Ted Rall, Lukas Ketner and Troubletown's Lloyd Dangle. Download the guide and find out what really is happening in the scary world of election theft, and find out how you can protect your vote in 7 easy steps.
Please spread the word - our servers can take it - we have a goal of 85,000 downloads by the end of the week - equal to the number of new voters denied their registration rights in Florida - help us get the word out tell everyone you know to go to www.StealBackYourVote.org and download the guide for FREE - or if you can - support out investigations and donate. Put our banners on your site, grab a page from the guide and put it up on your blog - or embed the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. video PSA.
Your donations for print copies goes towards sending out even more copies out to libraries and low-income GOTV campaigns in key voting states. We just sent a carload to Native-American Pueblo leaders. They asked for more - help us send them by making a donation to the Palast Investigative Fund. Big thanks from the investigative team, Greg Palast
When I was in my senior year of high school, I starred in our class play -- "Sweet Charity." Nashua Senior High School put on the production, which featured James Middleton as Vittorio VIdal. (Sorry -- I can't remember the names of the other actors.)
I remember how on night one, things went great. We all sang beautifully, scene changes were crisp and quick, and lines came out like they were supposed to.
On night two, after being admonished "don't lose the energy!" of course -- we lost the energy. People forgot lines, scenes got almost wrecked, and my singing -- although I recall was still good -- suffered because I forgot to turn my wireless microphone on. The stage crew responded by raising the stage mics, but some people in the audience couldn't hear me very well, according to some of my friends. (Maybe it was a good thing -- depending on whether you liked my singing voice...)
:)
The point is that it IS difficult to keep your energy up. But we could have avoided this, if we had remembered to make a checklist before going on for night two.
Think of this election as being a lot like "night two." Make your checklist now, or even in a week. Refer to it often. On electtion day, make sure to take it WITH YOU everywhere that you go. Having a piece of paper, an iPhone, a Blackberry, or any other personal note-taking implement will help you. The idea is to avoid either forgetting important things or panicking when you realize that you have forgotten something -- and can't remember what it was.
That's it. I believe that we CAN WIN THIS THING -- but in the 24 hours leading up to election day, the only thing that we must remember is to GET OUT THE VOTE. Period. If that isn't clear, simple, and easy enough to remember, then forget it -- and just do it anyway.
Also, if you are disabled and need a ride to the polls, or need help with a ballot, then be sure to contact your Obama state / city office. And if you can help someone else, then be sure to offer your assisatance. For my part, I'm hoping to vote absentee in Massachusetts, and then travel on the 4th to New Hampshire to help coordinate their GOTV efforts.
PLEASE advise everyone that you know---
Voters ABSOLUTELY CANNOT go to the polls WEARING ANY OBAMA SHIRTS, PINS OR HATS it is against the law and could be grounds to have the polling officials turn you away! Wearing your gear could be considered Electioneering or Campaigning.
No one can campaign within X amount of feet to the polls (usually 100 feet). This is determined by state and county election officials. Republicans are banking on the new Democratic voters being excited and unaware of this long standing LAW that you can bet will be ENFORCED this year! Republicans are guessing that if we’re turned away from a polling place we won’t go home, change our clothes and return to vote. PLEASE JUST DON'T WEAR OBAMA GEAR OF ANY SORTS TO THE POLLS!
Most poll places (not all) will let folks vote and then leave. REMEMBER - no hanging around afterward. However, if asked to leave because of your clothing, go outside turn your shirt inside out or put on a jacket and go back in to vote.
Electioneering: to canvass votes for, or otherwise work for the success of a candidate, political party, etc. in an election.
Q: How far away from the polling place must I be to electioneer?
A: A line will be established by the election judges and you must be behind that line. The line will be located as near as practicable to 100 feet from the entrance and exit of the polling place.
Please Pass this on… Obama - Biden '08
Those of you that know me know that I am a bit of a geek (as illustrated by my last post and the inclusion of a Great Circle Mapper website). Anyway, for the last few years I have been following polls on www.realclearpolitics.com . I always felt that it did a nice aggregation of various polls.
This election cycle I have become a huge fan of Nate Silver's www.fivethirtyeight.com site. He applies sound statistical discipline and runs thousands of regressions of polling data each day.
Today he writes a piece well worth reading if you are interested in polling. http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2008/09/real-credibility-problems.html . In a nutshell, he points out the outright bias contained in RCPs results. Three words: Don't Trust RCP!
My suggestions for good polling information?
Today we’ll talk about the vice presidential debate, which is scheduled for Thursday at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo at 8 PM. This will put Sarah Palin and Joe Biden head-to-head for the first and only time, which promises to be lively and entertaining.
Many of us who are enthusiastically supporting the Obama-Biden ticket smell blood in the water – Sarah Palin has not done very well when asked questions and does not appear comfortable with the national news media, which is interesting considering her history as a sports reporter. She has had a couple of disastrous interviews with ABC’s Charlie Gibson and CBS’s Katie Couric which have dramatically lowered expectations for her performance. While her convention speech on the third day of the RNC and her stump speech have drawn criticism for their inaccuracies and praise for their tough delivery, she does not seem to have a grasp of national issues. Based on that somewhat anecdotal evidence one might expect her to sink miserably against a polished politician like Joe Biden. Don’t underestimate this woman.
Here's a solution for getting voter poll data WITHOUT the "Bradley Effect".
Have your polling company lease a bunch of tablet computers and put the answer collecting software on them.
Then have the pollsters go to shopping malls whose clientele match the desired demographic profile(s) to collect data.
Each pollster should approach only solitary shoppers with the request to take the poll.
If agreed, the pollster hands over the tablet PC (which is attached to the pollster by a long Kensington security cable).
Then the pollster turns his or her back.
DUPLICATING VOTING BOOTH PRIVACY CONDITIONS
When the 'voter' is finished, the [Submit] button is pressed and the answers dissappear.
Now, if the shopper believes the pollster's claims that additional answers will NOT be connected with the poll answers, the shopper can Optionally fill out contact data, if he or she wishes to get on the mailing list or sign up to help.
Bradley Effect neutralized; you're welcome.
There's a state law regulating what you can wear to the polls. If you wear anything that displays the likeness of a candidate, you will be turned away from the polls on November 4, Election Day.
The law was designed to keep candidates or parties from interfering or distracting voters during the voting process. So that means campaign signs, buttons, hats, t-shirts, lapel pins, bracelets, that endorse any candidate is not allowed within 40 feet of an entrance to a polling place.
This information was passed to me and so I'm now passing it the you guys. I had planned on wearing my Obama gear because I had never heard of this. Some of you folks may already know this so this is intended for those who were in the dark like me.
-Lana
I am personally offended as an American that the media and the Republican Party are implying that because I am a woman that I will vote for a woman on the Presidential ticket. Those are the sexist remarks and behavior that millions of women should be offended by.
Equal Employment Opportunity Law (Title VII, ADA, EPA, ADEA) ensures that no person in our country is discriminated against or harassed based on their race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age. It is ironic that there are laws to protect people in the workplace but when a person leaves the workplace they are stereotyped, categorized and reduced to polling data.
Why is that? It’s because it sells! And we as Americans have been buying it. Why doesn’t anyone stop them? The Press (Media) is protected by the First Amendment to our US Constitution which protects Freedom of Speech and of the Press. It is a great thing that we made sure as a country that the press is not censured like it is or has been in other countries. In fact, it ensures that I have a right to have my letter printed. But with great power comes great responsibility. The behavior of some members of our press has been irresponsible.
Our government is not “of, for and by the media” who are looking at polls as if we are voting someone on or off of a reality show. Our government is “of, for and by the people” – ALL of the people. And when we each go into a voting booth on November 4, 2008 to select a person to be President of the United States of America, we are doing so as a citizen – not a stereotype.
Not that it is anyone’s business, since our votes are confidential, but I am going to vote for Barack Obama for President. It’s because his plans for our country are what I want. That’s how the process works. Each citizen (regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, or age) of the United States gets to decide who they want to vote for and why. The media isn’t taking that right away, they are just making a joke of it by analyzing our thoughts and decisions based on a small survey sample of the American people.
The only poll that really matters in this election is the voting booth.
Sincerely,
Sharon Berezne
Twinsburg, Ohio USA
PS I am a citizen who doesn’t fit the media/polling stereotype - Caucasian, Female, Married, 40 years old, employed, live in Ohio
According to a very interesting and well researched article by Seth Colter Walls the short answer is YES. Polling does not sample recently registered voters and typically the reach out to equal numbers of democrats and republicans causing data to be skewed because there are about eleven million more registered democrats in the United States.
God Bless America!
MoorAmerican reporting for WAR – “Fired Up and Ready To Go” POPLUV THE PAYGO & VOTE FOR OBAMA!
Senator Barack Obama is the only qualified candidate for the “CHANGE” movement. The CHANGE movement is an American Revolutionary Movement to bring “a change in our laws and in our politics.”
The choice is clear. Senator Barack Obama is the only candidate that has the credentials and character to be President of the United States of America in Congress Assembled! He is the only candidate that built a grass-root organization into an American Revolutionary Movement to bring “a change in our laws and in our politics.” He is the only candidate in the general election that has an administration for the 44th Presidency of the United States of America [in Congress Assembled].
I wonder what our forefather John Hanson would say about my vote for Senator Barack Obama? He is an original GOP Continental Republican Leader from the Commonwealth of Maryland and a real American Revolutionary War Hero… Under the Articles of Confederation, George Washington was the Commander-in-Chief of the Revolutionary Army while he served the people of America as the President of the Continental Congress Assembled!
President John Hanson would probably say the following words with humble and gracious eloquence,"No doubt! Already my knowledge of your Character leads me to anticipate infinite satisfaction… May Heaven still continue to smile on our efforts!"
The Republican GOP is divided. The Republican Party is divided and undecided about voting for Bush McCain Palin or Bush Palin McCain or McCain Palin. The party has lost the trust and confidence of the American people. The Republican GOP ticket will crash and burn in a hail of American votes that say “EIGHT IS ENOUGH!
It was great seeing all of you yesterday. We were expecting 5 people, and to see 48 people turn out was really something amazing.
By the way, the link that I sent in the email regarding the latest Nevada poll was broken.
This link will take you to the actual story: http://tinyurl.com/6j86no
A new RGJ/KTVN Channel 2 poll being released today shows Nevada continues to be a true toss-up in the presidential race. In the poll of 600 likely Nevada voters, 44 percent favor U.S. Sen. Barack Obama and 43 percent favor U.S. Sen. John McCain.
Hi everyone,
I'd like for you to try something . Click on the link below and take a look see at all the cute little demographics they got going on.
http://abcnews.go.com/Polli...
They got gender, race , age , income level, ect. Now, after you take a look at who's supporting who based on these demographics, see if you can answer this one question for me.
Ready ? Here we go.
QUESTION:
What would the polling results look like if polling firms only contacted White Evangelical , Conservatives over the age of 65 with land line phones , but "weighted" everyone else ?
(weighted means to basically make up shet based on how they "think" other groups will vote).
IF YOUR ANSWER IS :
A Fake "Tight" Race That Really Isn't , You're CORRECT !
http://www.realclearpolitic...
Have a nice day,
Dee Anna
I have an idea for estimating the vote of those people who do not have a landline. If you used the list of people who have donated to Obama's campaign you can safely assume that those people are dedicated voters - even if they haven't voted before and/or don't have a landline to call and be polled by pollsters. The trouble is, of course, there is a significant overlap between those polled and those who donate to Obama's campaign. Further, it's not a completely random sample of the voting public. But, it is a ratio of the strongly dedicated to Obama, voting public.
I would have to think about it for a bit longer than I have in order to work the specifics out, but it's an idea none the less. I'd be interested to know if the Obama campaign is already doing this (of course, I don't expect them to tell anyone outside the campaign), or if anyone else is.
Well, those are my thoughts for the day, as of now. Hope everyone's Sunday finds them well!
