In my little corner of NC the Republicans and Teajadists continue to take signs, disrupt our tables at the early voting locations, and harass people at the polls. I have a neighbor who has had their Obama signs stolen THREE TIMES! I replaced the sign twice, but now I'm out of signs.
This same neighbor was telling me about some disturbing possible-intimidation that is happening to people assisting voters. Apparently she isn't alone in complaining about something fishy going on at our polls. The local newspaper had a front-page article alleging many more complaints yesterday.
On the signs, it is tempting to go out and get revenge. Sign theft is juvenile and wrong, but for the immature dickheads that make up the Republican party, this is par for the course. I am reminded by a friend that Yard signs don't vote.
Its just frustrating, because I feel like I'm being attacked by a bunch of school-yard bullies. I keep remembering the actual bullies that harassed and assaulted me all through school all the way up until I became a recluse late in high school.
One last thing WE NEED MORE VOLUNTEERS! My OFA office is having a hard time getting anyone to come in. You would think that with such a close election that people would be inclined to come out and spare an hour or three, but that is not the case. Most of the people on my list are "too busy" or "didn't sign up for that" (a lie because this list is compiled from people who checked "I want to volunteer" on those commit to vote cards) or suddenly they decide that we have the wrong number. Motherfucker, I KNOW you are making shit up. Do YOU know how important it is for us to get turnout? Do YOU know that by saying no to us means that we just lost at least 20 votes?
A lot of this frustration stems from other life experiences, where I have been left to do everything on my own. My senior project was 95% me, when it was supposed to be a four person job. I couldn't get the thing done because my teammates decided to play Rock Band and dick around on Myspace instead of help out. I was abandoned during a community college finals project as well, when the teammate who was supposed to provide a network diagram spent 5 minutes on MS Paint instead (it was so bad it was funny. I wasn't amused.) I'm trying to go Pro at a certain hobby. Guess how many people in my playtest group I can count on? Zero.
I look at the local Democratic party here, and I empathize with the uphill battle that they face, but I am also jealous of what the other side is doing. There are homemade Romney signs everywhere. We can barely keep a pair of people at the early voting locations. I have a lot of ideas for some theatrics or demonstrations to fight back, but I don't have the manpower and the party skews older anyway. I don't want to put those guys in harm's way with a potentially dangerous protest.
We're also not working together (OFA and the local party) as well as we could have. This is partly a manpower issue, but the people from the local party make a few phone calls and canvas exclusively for the local downticket candidates when a) Most of them are losing this election by 10% or more, b) They don't have the updated voter lists that OFA has, and c) They would be 10x more effective putting that time into OFA's efforts instead. I think its smarter to use the infrastructure and lists that OFA has and to push for straight ticket voting. That way, if we do win this thing for the President, the candidates down the ballot have a snowball's chance in hell of actually winning their elections as well. I love these guys, but I think they can do better with the limited resources that they have.