I’ll make this short and sweet. I’ve diaried before – and commented many times – about my trouble receiving a PA absentee ballot. The Philadelphia Board of Elections claims they mailed it to me on 10/24. I never received it, and the ballot needed to be turned in by 5pm Friday in order for it to be counted. I’m guessing about 10000 other Philadelphians are in the same position as me – which means that there might be thousands of Obama votes in PA that went down the toilet last week.
I’ve tortured myself on what to do. Train fare to Philly from DC is $90+ round trip, and – being that I’m a law student who will be graduating next year with $175k in student loans and taking a $60k/yr job – I did not relish the thought of spending that much money to vote.
But this election is too important for me to sit out. So last night, I bought a round trip ticket to Philly. On Tuesday morning, I’ll be casting my provisional ballot in person. I’m spending $107 to help make Barack Obama our next President.
Polls not withstanding, EVERYONE should feel the same urgency that I do about Election Day on Tuesday.
At the top of the rec list are two diaries suggesting that Obama is headed for a massive landslide. They might be right – and man, I hope they’re right. But IMHO, they are the last thing we need at the top of the rec list right now. Right now, we need to be telling ourselves that this race is going to be close. We need to tell ourselves that the IBD/TIPP poll is right, and that this poll is in the 2-4% range nationally. We need to tell ourselves "Maybe the Bradley/Wilder effect isn’t a myth," and that there will be a lot of people who come out of the woodwork tomorrow to cast a vote for McCain because they fear Obama. We need to tell ourselves that enough Obama voters will be scared or confused or intimidated or challenged out of voting by all the last-minute dirty tricks that are sure to pop up during the next 24 hours.
We need to be a little scared that Obama’s lead in PA has collapsed from the teens to the mid-single digits in less than 2 weeks – and that the vast majority of the remaining undecided voters are whites over the age of 30. We. Can't. Be. Complacent.
That's why tomorrow, I'm missing my favorite class and printing off my $107 tickets.
So don’t get suckered in by the good trends at Gallup and (heh) Zogby. Get up. Get out. Vote. And get everyone you know to vote.
Do it – even if it means spending $107.