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Volunteers take to doors, phones to get butts into ballot boxes
If you’re an avowed supporter of Sen. John McCain and you don’t vote by 4 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 4, expect a phone call. If you’ve pledged to vote for Sen. Barack Obama by absentee ballot but haven’t mailed it in yet, there’s a good chance you’ve had a knock on your door.
Armies of local volunteers are mobilizing to deliver supporters of their presidential candidate to the ballot box on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
This requires passion, and some cutting edge technology.
McCain and Obama each have three campaign offices in Butler County. On Wednesday, Oct. 29, both candidates’ local headquarters were humming.
The McCain strategy
At the McCain nerve center in Fairfield Twp., four long tables are lined with 12 phones each. The shifts are written on the walls, and that afternoon, 15 people were making calls.
This included Colleen O’Kane and Lauren Anderson, both 21. O’Kane called 1,426 homes on Oct. 7 alone.
“It’s a lot of hard work, but I think it’s very worthwhile,” she said. “We’ll be able to see when we watch the returns … the impact of all the phone calls we’re making.”
The numbers they dial come from voter rolls and polling data. They call only Republican supporters or independents they think they can win over.
“We basically have a very good understanding of who you are, what you are, how you think, based on your previous voting record,” said Butler County McCain campaign chairman Scott Owens.
If you tell a volunteer you’re undecided, they push a button on the phone that orders the campaign in Washington, D.C., to send you some materials. If you tell them you’re behind them, they push another button that puts you on another list.
That second list is pulled out on Election Day when, at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m., volunteers go to every one of the hundreds of polling places in Butler County. They’re called “flushers” and they check who hasn’t voted.
Then they go back to one of numerous “host homes” in the county and call Republicans who haven’t voted yet. This involves hundreds of volunteers working quickly.
“It’s an unbelievable operation,” Owens said.
While they concede the Obama campaign outnumbers them in paid staffers, Owens said they have more volunteers on the ground.
“There’s a difference between a paid staffer, shipping someone here, and a local volunteer who understands the geography,” Owens said. The Obama strategy
The technology is improved, but the tactics for the McCain campaign are unchanged from the ones that delivered victory to President Bush in 2004.
The Democrats are trying something completely different.
Unlike the failed campaign of Sen. John Kerry that focused only on key, big cities in Ohio, Obama has deployed resources in every corner of the state — even Republican strongholds like Butler County.
The campaign has 89 offices in Ohio, and they will be hubs of activity on Election Day.
“We’ve opened twice as many offices as the Kerry folks were able to in 2004 because of our commitment to grass roots organizing and I think that’s paying dividends across the state,” said Obama campaign spokesman Isaac Baker.
This is the strategy that worked for Gov. Ted Strickland and Sen. Sherrod Brown, both Democrats. And Baker said these two big-hitters also bring some fundraising and rallying ammunition Kerry never had.
At the regional Obama office in Middletown Wednesday, a dozen volunteers were on computers and phones and building signs. Hand-colored posters adorned the walls and the floor was littered with remnants of literature.
Eileen Heaney, 18, and Rachel Eve Ginter, 22, packed up some fliers and drove out to Auburn Street in Middletown to knock on doors.
“This is the type of thing that will be in the history books when my kids are grown,” Heaney said.
In addition to Election Day turnout, volunteers are focusing heavily on early voting, which they think benefits their campaign.
“We’ve been very pleased to see tens of thousands of people turn out across the state to cast their ballot for Barack Obama,” Baker said.
Obama is leading in Ohio in national opinion polls. But the election will be decided based on who can get their supporters to actually vote on Election Day.
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