People need to stop being so negative about Obama in Ohio
Obama has over 50 some offices in Ohio (even in Southern Ohio, you see that Ohiobama)
( http://my.barackobama.com/...
and we have been phone banking, canvassing, and registering for months now. We have thousands of volunteers. The polls wrong since they do not take into account of the thousands and thousands of new voters registers, especially since in OH felons can vote now and the campaign is registered all of them. The campaign is also registering in large numbers the Somali population in OH who had not voted before and is actually a huge group in Columbus and they are voting for Obama.
The polls use HISTORICAL demographics of voters, they use a historical percentage to make their poll like 35% polled will be D, 35% will be R, and 30% will be I, but those are not the true numbers. The polls are also wrong in OH since they don't poll cell phones and that is about 2% change in the polls.
It also matter WHERE in the state you poll you voters, that makes a big difference too. Obama was even last week in the middle of rural Ohio campaigning in the small town of New Philadelphia.
Look, you can make a polls say whatever you want it to say if you go at it a certain way. I see it as very fishy that Rasmussen charges you $20 to see the internals of their polls.
Stories from the Obama volunteers in Ohio:
(1) I was at the Obama-Biden rally volunteering. I was there at 1:00pm when the event started at 6:30pm on a hot and very sunny Saturday after the Dem Convention. We ended up having over 20,000 show up in a very conservative area of Columbus in Dublin.
The amazing story out of this event is one lady that was volunteering there with. She was in her late 40s and dance coach at Dublin C. High school (more than one high school in Dublin). she said she had NEVER voted for a Democrat, but things have gotten out of hand, she hated Palin and the country was in shambles. Not only was she voting for a Democrat for the first time in her life, she was actively volunteering.
(2) I live and volunteer in New Albany area, which is a very rich and conservative area of Columbus. We were doing our usual phone bank this last Sunday afternoon and it turned out to be a great day. We had over 10 different households in New Albany who said they had ALWAYS voted Republican but this year were going to vote for Obama and many wanted to volunteer. They said the country is going down the tubes and the Republicans are not going to do anything to help them. Many people we have called have said 8 years have been enough and we need a change. Now this again is a conservative area.
(3) On Saturday Sept 6, we did our usual voter registration in front of the New Albany library. We usually have a table out in front to register voters from 10am-2pm. Some days I have received 3 registrations,and some 8 registrations. This week I had my wife, another lady for part of the time along with a couple for the last two hours. I also decided to stand in front of the New Albany Post Office which was right around the New Albany Library. We got about 18 voter registrations and other that said they will tell family memember to come over next week. We also had other that asked to bring the forms home to have their family members sign and would bring them back to us next Saturday. Over and over again, we got that we needed a change and the country was going in the wrong direction. I had more than a couple elderly people sign up for the first time to vote.
(4) One of our local volunteers told us of a friend of the family and their voting story. This lady told us of their friend that was a 90 year old man who had NEVER voted before, but now registered to vote and wants to vote for Obama. He wants an Obama hat to wear around because he wants Obama elected that much (and no he is not black, but white)
(5) At our Columbus 4th of July fireworks (Red, White, and Boom), the campaign registered over 6,000 new voters on that sign day event.
(6) I personally had registered at least 100 people myself so far. It is a great feeling helping people vote. Most people thank me even if they are already registered. But I have even gotten glares for even registered voters too and I do care because I am doing my civic duty and helping people to vote.
(7) A couple weeks ago, I was phone banking and I ran into a undecided voter. He had always voted for Republicans, but he kept telling me he really was at 50%-50%. He actually wanted to hear what I had to say. So I told him of my own conversion from being a former Republican and why I support Obama. I talked about fiscal policy, national defense, economy, Iraq, etc. I had him by the end of this 20 minute talk on the Obama website reading the issues page while I was on the phone. At the end of the coversation, he was actually reading the "Blueprint for change" on his website and reading all 65 pages of it. He thanked me and he said before this he was 50-50 and now he is very learning Obama. It was a great feeling.
This is just a small picture of what is going on here. Thanks and have a great day.
Yes WE CAN. Ohio will be blue in 2008
I would strongly recommend volunteering any time you have to help Obama get elected, even if it is only 1 hour a week. Before this, I had NEVER done anything like this and I was afraid to.
UPDDATE 1:
I forgot to pass along this fact that all volunteers in OH know: If Kerry would have received 6 more votes in each Ohio precint (sorry about spelling), he would have won Ohio
Update #2
Sept30 -October 6th is the "One week to save the world", where you can register and vote all at one time in Ohio. October 6th is the last day to register in Ohio. Starting Sept. 30th, Ohio (for the first time) has early voting in person or mail all the way up to the election day.
This reminder from Chazzg
UPDATE #3
I was asked to explain the voter registration process after signed. Well I hand all completed voter registrations to my neighborhood campaign worker. Then he takes them back to the local office, has them copied for their records so they have the info. The original voter registrations are delivered by hand to the local board of elections. Just remember that once it has been signed and dated, it only has (i like) 10 days for them to be turned in.