Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition!
When the pundits say the Obama ground force was targeted, this is what they mean.
The organization was astounding. New volunteeers were welcomed, signed up, name-tagged and trained in groups of 8 to 10 by more experienced volunteers. Within half an hour they would be oriented and pointed toward the phone bank tables. There were at least 150 people all day on weekends. Sometimes we had to wait a few minutes for another list to come our way, so many people were working.
Every phone bank volunteer was handed a list of approximately 20 names to call in a particular battleground state. Every list contained information on each voter, including name, gender, party affiliation, how many times the name had been phoned before and the results of the phone call. Results could be not home, wrong number, refuse to talk, deceased, already voted. When we got a live person on the phone (we were not supposed to leave messages) we asked if they were supporting Obama, and marked how committed they were.
The amazing thing to me was that the lists included the polling place for each voter, and every table had lists taped to the table of every battleground state's polling hours, required ID, number to call for a ride, number to call to report voting irregularities.
Every list included a script.
A few weeks ago, the scripts were more general and pretty much a fishing expedition. How likely are you to vote for Obama? are you willing to volunteer? If the Undecideds were willing to chat, we could offer some reasons to vote for Obama from a list of his accomplishments and target them to the particular voter. We would mention to young women, for example, the Lily Ledbetter act for equal pay, freedom to choose, inclusion on their parents' insurance policies until the age of 26, the expansion of the student grant program, the cleaning up the student bank loan boondoggle. To a middle-aged man, I mentioned the Detroit auto bailout as having noticeably worked.
The SF office was connected electronically at the hip to "Chicago." So everytime the Chicago team discovered a county that needed attention, they would instantly send us new scripts and new lists with those targets. This explains why I talked to so many Latinos in Nevada, and so many African Americans in Ohio. Volunteers walked around collecting the complete phone lists, and handing out new ones. When a phone list was turned in, the results were entered into a computer Some people brought their own laptops and entered data from the phone lists. All the "already voted"s and "deceased"s etc were removed from the list, and a new one generated. Sometimes we'd have to wait ten minutes for a new script because there were so many volunteers using them.
Every time a volunteer talked to someone who was definitely going to vote for Obama, we got to ring a bell. So satisfying!
On the day before and the day of the election, the scripts were designed to noodge anyone who hadn't voted to vote, and get them to commit to a time. You're going after classes? The polls are open till 7:30. Do you need a ride? No, you can walk to your polling place? Great. You've already voted for Obama? Wonderful! Ding! Thank you.
There was food. Volunteers walked around handing out cups of water, pizza, bagels, baked goods. There were extension cords and power strips for phone chargers.
More experienced volunteers helped the newbies. People were engaging and cheery on the phones. Frankly, I was amazed that anyone would even talk to us. I haven't answered my own phone at home for 2 months.
I drove by the campaign headquarters yesterday and the whole operation was cleaned up, with only red, white and blue balloons floating outside as a sign that anything had gone on there. I really hate to see this organization shut down. It's a powerful tool.
When the pundits say the Obama ground force was targeted, this is what they mean.
The organization was astounding. New volunteeers were welcomed, signed up, name-tagged and trained in groups of 8 to 10 by more experienced volunteers. Within half an hour they would be oriented and pointed toward the phone bank tables. There were at least 150 people all day on weekends. Sometimes we had to wait a few minutes for another list to come our way, so many people were working.
Every phone bank volunteer was handed a list of approximately 20 names to call in a particular battleground state. Every list contained information on each voter, including name, gender, party affiliation, how many times the name had been phoned before and the results of the phone call. Results could be not home, wrong number, refuse to talk, deceased, already voted. When we got a live person on the phone (we were not supposed to leave messages) we asked if they were supporting Obama, and marked how committed they were.
The amazing thing to me was that the lists included the polling place for each voter, and every table had lists taped to the table of every battleground state's polling hours, required ID, number to call for a ride, number to call to report voting irregularities.
Every list included a script.
A few weeks ago, the scripts were more general and pretty much a fishing expedition. How likely are you to vote for Obama? are you willing to volunteer? If the Undecideds were willing to chat, we could offer some reasons to vote for Obama from a list of his accomplishments and target them to the particular voter. We would mention to young women, for example, the Lily Ledbetter act for equal pay, freedom to choose, inclusion on their parents' insurance policies until the age of 26, the expansion of the student grant program, the cleaning up the student bank loan boondoggle. To a middle-aged man, I mentioned the Detroit auto bailout as having noticeably worked.
The SF office was connected electronically at the hip to "Chicago." So everytime the Chicago team discovered a county that needed attention, they would instantly send us new scripts and new lists with those targets. This explains why I talked to so many Latinos in Nevada, and so many African Americans in Ohio. Volunteers walked around collecting the complete phone lists, and handing out new ones. When a phone list was turned in, the results were entered into a computer Some people brought their own laptops and entered data from the phone lists. All the "already voted"s and "deceased"s etc were removed from the list, and a new one generated. Sometimes we'd have to wait ten minutes for a new script because there were so many volunteers using them.
Every time a volunteer talked to someone who was definitely going to vote for Obama, we got to ring a bell. So satisfying!
On the day before and the day of the election, the scripts were designed to noodge anyone who hadn't voted to vote, and get them to commit to a time. You're going after classes? The polls are open till 7:30. Do you need a ride? No, you can walk to your polling place? Great. You've already voted for Obama? Wonderful! Ding! Thank you.
There was food. Volunteers walked around handing out cups of water, pizza, bagels, baked goods. There were extension cords and power strips for phone chargers.
More experienced volunteers helped the newbies. People were engaging and cheery on the phones. Frankly, I was amazed that anyone would even talk to us. I haven't answered my own phone at home for 2 months.
I drove by the campaign headquarters yesterday and the whole operation was cleaned up, with only red, white and blue balloons floating outside as a sign that anything had gone on there. I really hate to see this organization shut down. It's a powerful tool.
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