The "real" election is closer than you think.
The primary season was a long and bruising one. It is over. We are uniting behind our candidate. And although Hillary Clinton has endorsed Barack Obama with a fine speech, I don't think everyone here got the memo.
Polls are really fun to look at. I love polls. Nothing is more exciting than seeing Obama pull ahead in the latest Michigan poll from Survey USA. But pre-election polls aren't always that reliable. Who wins or loses an election always depends on turnout, turnout, turnout. It's somewhat important to pay attention to polls. But there are other things that are way more important.
This year we have a unique opportunity in that it will be extremely easy to register new Democrats; the Republicans are having a much tougher time in this category. I read a recent diary I really enjoyed about the surge of Democratic voter registrations in Nevada - registered Democrats now outnumber registered Republicans by 70,000 (In 2004, registered Republicans outnumbered registered Democrats in the Silver State by 10,000).
But it's not enough. There is still a massive need in the area of voter registration in all the battleground states (in all the states for that matter). Every minute spent obsessing over the latest polls or arguing back and forth is a minute that could be spent out in public registering new voters. I know sometimes it's tough to get motivated.
But please realize that this election is closer than you think. In many states, the real election will end on October 4th. In many states, that is the deadline to register to vote. That means we have about 110 days to register new voters before the deadline in a lot of these battleground states. That's just over three and a half months. Time goes by quickly, especially in the summertime.
Perhaps some of you know people who aren't registered who plan to vote for Obama. Help them register. Ask everyone in your immediate circle who supports Obama if they are sure they are registered. If a friend or relative has moved, make sure that person re-registers. If you want to help register new voters in a more ambitious way, go to BarackObama.com and open a free account where you can network with other supporters in your state and look for registration events. If there is no registration event in your area, start one. Or just go to the local post office, grab some registration forms and visit your local college and ask passers-by if they would like to register.
Don't wait for the Obama campaign to open an office in your area. There's no time. Having a 70,000 registration advantage in Nevada is fantastic. Let's shoot for 140,000 before election day. Or more. More, more, more.
So my polite but firm request is to do everything you possibly can to register new Democratic voters before the deadline hits in your state. As Barack Obama would say, the fierce urgency of now is upon is. We've not a second to lose.
Tomorrow, I'll be giving an diary update on my efforts in Mississippi. It's going well. It seems like we'll have quite a few volunteers and a seemingly endless list of places to register new voters. And that's just in the Gulf Coast area! I might actually end up spending some time in Mississippi this Summer to help out with the project. And I will definitely spend some weekends in Vegas furiously registering new Obama voters.