OK, it's finally the start of the big four-day GOTV push in Ohio. Volunteers have signed up for one (or more) of three 3.5 hour shifts on Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday (9:30-1:00, 1:00-4:30, 4:30-8:00) for burning the shoe leather.
I got a call from the organizer of my ward in Columbus asking if I would be OK with being reassigned to another area "with a lot of Democrats who haven't voted yet." Sounded good to me since my own ward seems pretty saturated.
more below the jump...
The GOTV effort in the reassigned area was based in a church:
Lots of volunteers were there for the 1:00 shift--I'd say about two dozen. HEre's the sign-in table:
And a briefing session:
Lots of good energy from all.
The "turf" that I drew was a little weird in that it was spread over miles, generally only one or two houses on any given street, requiring a lot of driving rather than walking. Later I heard the explanation was that most of the people on those streets had already been reached. It was an unfamiliar neighborhood to me so it was a good thing I have an Android phone with GPS.
It's was a unique working-class turf generally speaking. I found 11 people home total, all of whom were staunch Obama supporters. Every one said they definitely were going to vote--I think about 4 said they already had early voted, a few more said they might do so Sunday or Monday and the rest insisted on going to the polls on election day. Three accepted a yard sign which I had handy in my trunk, so it was good my car was generally nearby for that purpose. The area in general seemed a bit underserved in the way of signage.
One young man who accepted a sign expressed disbelief that the election is even close, given that Romney "made his money putting people out of work." A woman told me she got a glimpse of the President yesterday at the rally in Hilliard, OH.
Anyway, looking forward to this final push for the next three days! It should be easier and easier as we target these heavily Democratic walk lists.