Obama's position on Early Voting..

[unapatriciated]

I have seen several threads discouraging early voting,
I'm not sure if they are disputers or truly believe their vote is at risk if cast early.
The Obama Campaign has been encouraging us to vote early so that we will be able to help with last minuet registering and than get voters to the polls.
Here in Georgia we have registered many thousands of new voters and these new voters have been entered in a database so that we can follow up and make sure they are able to get to the polls.
The Obama Campaign has set up many headquarters in every state months ago to make sure that as many who are eligible to vote are registered and get to the polls in November.
The McCain campaign has not done this and relied only on traditional campaign efforts.

Notice to the right of the page under VOTE FOR A CHANGE you can click and find out where to vote early if allowed in your state.
http://www.barackobama.com/index.php

Here is another reason why early voting will benefit Obama, plus the latest news with Wall Street is fresh in these voters minds.
http://www.politicalbase.com/profile/Mark%20Nickolas/blog/&blogId=3081
Obama's Biggest Advantage: Early Voting

Yesterday, I noted that Ohio instituted same-day voter registration and an early voting window effective this year. Doing so has created a serious problem for John McCain (R) since his campaign doesn't have the infrastructure, organization, or enthusiasm to take advantage of this opportunity, particularly among college students.

As a result of its action, Ohio became the 31st state that allows early voting without an excuse (some states allow it only when a voter has a specific reason, like being out of town on Election Day). And while most states allow early voting beginning about 15 days before the general election, some have much longer windows. Ohio will allow voting as early as September 30. Iowa's window opens 40 days out, Montana and Maine are 30 days out, Wisconsin 21 days out, North Carolina 19 days out, and Nevada and New Mexico allow early voting 17 days out.

All told, 15 states that are considered competitive this year offer some form of unrestricted early voting.

But the thing you must keep in mind is that the benefit to the presidential campaigns of early voting can only be accomplished if it has a state organization that is capable of program to "bank" a meaningful number of early votes, so that it can focus its attention to more traditional GOTV tasks in the final week. Without an ample organization, a campaign is limited to simply encouraging its supporters to vote early. Only with a fairly large organization can a campaign can actually identify, push, and follow-up with supporters who promised to vote early.

So, let's take a look at the organizations in each of these states by the presidential candidates.

Thanks to Nate Silver's efforts, we know how many offices the Obama campaign has opened versus the numbers opened by McCain and state Republican parties (Unlike Obama, McCain is largely relying on GOP-run efforts):



Click on the above link for a chart of Field Offices opened by both Candidates.
Obama has 194 to McCain's 60, here in Georgia Obama has 11 McCain 0.

[maddezmom]

1. thanks for posting

:hi:

[unapatriciated]

3. Your welcome

I hope all DUers who are able to, go to their nearest Obama field office and volunteer just a few hours a week.
The Obama Campaign is creating a paper trail with this very organized database,

[EFerrari]

2. Early voting really isn't about early but about how you vote.

You have to figure out what the most secure method is.

If you can get an absentee ballot and walk it in, that's great.

If you go in and vote on an OpScan, that's not as secure but better than voting on a touchscreen. If I had to do that, I'd wait until there were monitors around the normal voting window if I were in a swing state. OpScan ballots are rarely hand counted when there are problems so don't fool yourself about that. Get it right the first time.

I know turn out means everything this year. So, think through how you're voting. Be as safe as possible.

[unapatriciated]

4. because there have been problems in past elections....

could be the reason The Obama Campaign has their own database of newly registered voters. I know that everyone I have registered have expressed their desire for HOPE and CHANGE. It is a paper trail of sorts.

[EFerrari]

5. It's wonderful to see such smart work.

We also need to mind that this year, HAVA has mandated digital voter reg files.

We need to encourage people to check their registrations so they can have a great experience on Electon Day.

[EFerrari]

6. Kick

[applegrove]

7. Thanks for clearing up this important issues. The mods locked a thread

telling people not to vote early for the reason that it "could suppress the vote" and they were right to do that. I have great confidence in the mods. They do a great job. But thanks for flushing out the issue for me.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

8. I imagine that black people, especially, may benefit from that.

So when you are stopped by police on election day for Voting While Black, you can fuck with the cop by saying "but I need to go vote..." while he keeps you for a looong time knowing full well you have ALREADY voted.

[skids]

9. plus we get early "exit polls"...

...from the pollsters. = more time to react and also immune to pollster LV screens so their expectations game is shot.

I'm betting at least one pollster will publish some stats on early voting, if only party ID.