Is anyone going to a battleground state?

[Deleted]

and/or did anyone volunteer in one last time? I cannot get away from work that week but I think DH is going. Not sure what he'll be doing yet or which state though (but Nevada seems likely given our location).

[Knight]

I worked here in Indiana in 08 when it was a battleground. I went door to door, phone banks, helped organize other volunteers, did a liquor store run for the victory party, and worked the polls for 13 hours on 2 hours of sleep.

[Deleted]

I am so sad I cannot go. I love elections.

[Deleted]

My friend is going for work. She works for a large union and she's going to a battle ground state for the weeks leading up to the election.

[jillboston]

I'm doing voter protection (Dems team of attorneys that was started in 2004 by John Kerry's brother Cam) in NH again on Election Day.

[Deleted]

I volunteered at the office in 2008. I also fed the volunteers/staff one night and did voter protection on election day. I don't have time to do much this year, but I might try to sign up to take a meal again.

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2012 7:23:54 GMT -5 jillboston said:

I'm doing voter protection (Dems team of attorneys that was started in 2004 by John Kerry's brother Cam) in NH again on Election Day.

I think my husband will/wants to do something like that since he is a lawyer (and has a disability that will make it hard for him to go door to door). He's trying to organize a road trip with some of his friends. It sounds like it will be incredibly exciting and fulfilling and meaningful. Hard work but so important. We are in CA, and will vote of course, but obviously we are not part of it.

And I will say this about the convention- we were talking about going before, but it was listening to Bill Clinton that drove home "wow, one of us really needs to get out there." I never disbelieved in Obama, I thought he's done everything he could have and will be remembered as an extraordinary president. But it was the convention that really pushed us.

[Deleted]

FYI, if you don't have time to volunteer, you can always provide a meal to a campaign office. I took homemade food, but if you're not local, you can even sign up for a time and call in a delivery order. Be sure whatever you provide has a vegetarian option.

[biggulp15]

I live in a battleground state. So yes. Also, the inundation of phone calls, visits, and ads is enough to drive anyone insane, even if you like politics.

Sent from my ADR6300 using proboards

[Deleted]

I'm more concerned with making sure the poor, elderly, and immigrants aren't bullied at the polls and/or have transportation to the polls. The phone calls I find intrusive and annoying and wouldn't want to make. I just signed up for the voter protection program and emailed my boss I was going to try to be gone those days. DH will go either way, for as long as he is needed; he's an animal rights lawyer so his employer is obviously more understanding of the need than mine is.

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2012 8:10:28 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

FYI, if you don't have time to volunteer, you can always provide a meal to a campaign office. I took homemade food, but if you're not local, you can even sign up for a time and call in a delivery order. Be sure whatever you provide has a vegetarian option.

Do you know if sending food counts as a campaign contribution? It shouldn't, right? Would I have to run it through a PAC.

[gretchenindisguise]

I did last time. I lived next door to a battle state, so drove over and helped with the campaign. I did lots of door to door "get out the vote" work. Also helped in the small campaign office with logistics stuff and what not.

I still have all of my "keepsakes" safe in a box.

I won't this year because I'm in CA and no battleground state for me to get to easily.

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2012 8:40:22 GMT -5 elle said:

Sept 8, 2012 8:10:28 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

FYI, if you don't have time to volunteer, you can always provide a meal to a campaign office. I took homemade food, but if you're not local, you can even sign up for a time and call in a delivery order. Be sure whatever you provide has a vegetarian option.

Do you know if sending food counts as a campaign contribution? It shouldn't, right? Would I have to run it through a PAC.

Last time, they sent out emails or had a sign up sheet or something to ask people to bring in food to our local office. I think most people brought in take-out. Subs, bagels, etc. I took two big trays of veggie baked ziti and some brownies, and I never had to register it as anything. I'll never forget when one of the volunteers who I knew found out the food was homemade, he disappeared into the kitchen without even telling anybody else that dinner had arrived. I got the feeling he hadn't had a home-cooked meal in weeks. I figure that even if I don't have time to make something, I'll sign up for a Saturday evening and pick some stuff up at Costco.

Voter protection was pretty cool, too. Overall, my polling station was very quiet. There was one guy who was turned away because he didn't have proof of address. He had moved from a different neighborhood, but his mail was still going to his old address. In Wisconsin, you can register by affidavit, meaning if someone with proof of address in your ward swears under oath that s/he knows you live in the ward, you can register. So I let the guy borrow my cell phone to call his roommate, who came and verified his address. He was so excited that on his way from the registration table to the voting booth, he detoured to the poll watcher table to high five me. It looked like this was probably his first election, so I was glad he got to vote.

[blindyswife]

Sept 8, 2012 8:10:28 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

FYI, if you don't have time to volunteer, you can always provide a meal to a campaign office. I took homemade food, but if you're not local, you can even sign up for a time and call in a delivery order. Be sure whatever you provide has a vegetarian option.

This is a fantastic idea.

How do I find a nearby campaign office?

[Deleted]

Obama offices: www.barackobama.com/offices/

Romney offices: www.mittromney.com/states

(Holy shit, look at how non-partisan that was!)

[blindyswife]

Thanks, angry!

[Deleted]

Sept 8, 2012 11:12:52 GMT -5 @angryharpy said:

Sept 8, 2012 8:40:22 GMT -5 elle said:

Do you know if sending food counts as a campaign contribution? It shouldn't, right? Would I have to run it through a PAC.

Last time, they sent out emails or had a sign up sheet or something to ask people to bring in food to our local office. I think most people brought in take-out. Subs, bagels, etc. I took two big trays of veggie baked ziti and some brownies, and I never had to register it as anything. I'll never forget when one of the volunteers who I knew found out the food was homemade, he disappeared into the kitchen without even telling anybody else that dinner had arrived. I got the feeling he hadn't had a home-cooked meal in weeks. I figure that even if I don't have time to make something, I'll sign up for a Saturday evening and pick some stuff up at Costco.

Voter protection was pretty cool, too. Overall, my polling station was very quiet. There was one guy who was turned away because he didn't have proof of address. He had moved from a different neighborhood, but his mail was still going to his old address. In Wisconsin, you can register by affidavit, meaning if someone with proof of address in your ward swears under oath that s/he knows you live in the ward, you can register. So I let the guy borrow my cell phone to call his roommate, who came and verified his address. He was so excited that on his way from the registration table to the voting booth, he detoured to the poll watcher table to high five me. It looked like this was probably his first election, so I was glad he got to vote.

That is a really cool experience!

[WOT?*]

Washington is vote-by-mail but we were in Ohio in 2000 and 2004. DH was a voter protector during Bush/Kerry in '04 and it was quite an interesting experience. His R counterpart was African-American and placed in a predominantly white precinct in Cleveland (somewhat relevant considering the location and the precinct electorate being primarily white and union-heavy in a town where there is a high-percentage of minorities and non-union in other precincts). He challenged over half of the initial voters that came through until DH went to the precinct captain to make a charge and he was spoken to and observed thereafter. He dropped his percentage to below 40% but was still challenge-heavy. DH challenged almost nobody. This was in a state where ballots came up missing in two union-heavy towns, the Sec of State was making changes to ballots days before the election to invalidate certain types, weights of paper, formats and otherwise and not providing correct ballots to all stations, missing voter stickers and all sorts of fun stuff and hanky-panky going on.

Rather than get involved in the presidential election I worked on a state judge's election.

On the fun side, DS2 went alongside me putting out billboards and DH canvassing. That Halloween he elected to be a "Kerry for President" billboard. We were in a highly divisive neighborhood one county south of the Dem stronghold and the north border of the R strongholds. All the Dems showered him with candy; all the Rs did so after commenting and him responding "my mother made me do it."

[Deleted]

I never have, though an interesting idea. And though I live on the KS side, obviously MO is within easy driving distance.

Though I may be in CA for work and miss the whole thing:(. I was actually in CA for the 2010 elections too.

[Deleted]

Wow, BPO, that sounds like an incredible experience for your DH. I want some action like that.

[WOT?*]

Elle, it was very interesting. Ohio was the Florida of the 2004 election. They found several hundred missing absentee ballots several months later. I forgot to mention the part where they purged or attempted to purge abut 200,000 voters from the system for "non-matching information" (addresses not matching other info in databases); interestingly, the purged voters were predominantly Dems. Cuyahoga County had almost 3,000 ballots voided based on technical errors (Cleveland is Cuyahoga County, one of the union-heavy, Dem strongholds. This was the highest percentage, by far, of technical error ballot challenges). Challenges were made on "no home, no vote" - lists were made from foreclosure rolls as a basis for challenging voters. Ballots were issued that didn't have clear directions, including double-rows for presidential candidates and mis-aligned boxes. There are still people saying that Gore should have won because Bush didn't win Ohio and Blackwell (the Sec of State) handed it to him. Blackwell's ballots = Florida's hanging chads.

It was pretty fun, actually. Unfortunately we were 0-2 with our candidates.