I live in Germany. What can I do besides vote myself? Phonebank from home.
The last time I did something this depressing it was in a fucking terminal cancer ward. It's past 3:00 a..m. here. I can't sleep. I'm chatting with some intarwebs friends, reloading every poll out there and trying to do whatever I can.
I get calls to the US for less than five cents a minute. Montana and Nevada are in play. I went to Obama's phonebanking site and started making calls. The first thing I did was to read through the script. Then I did a practice run-through my head, explaining that I'm an American in Germany which is why the Caller ID is showing that freaky "+49" for my number. I have insomnia; my office will have to deal with it tomorrow.
And after running through most of the popular scenarios I've read here I started dialing. I've hit people who weren't home, been hung up on, been redirected, been told to fuck off, been called quite a few names, and been threatened with lawsuits. I kept dialing.
I finally got through to Kelly-in-Nevada, age 31, a "questionable". Someone who woke up an hour ago. She had to be at her main job in three hours and just didn't have time. "It's just one vote," she told me. "There are over three million people in Nevada and 300 million in the U.S.," I said, "The 2000 election was decided by around 500 people. Your vote does matter. It matters so much I'm here on the phone with you calling from Germany at three in the morning. That's how important your vote is."
Some quick searching/IRCing/twittering while I was talking to her showed a wait of 3-5 hours, something I told her she could probably avoid if she'd only explain her position to the people in line.
I don't know if Kelly's voted or not but I know she's at least making an effort to go. I'm not going to cry by being told to fuck off by some Montanans or Nevadans (or even Marylanders and Pennsylvanians). I will cry if we don't leave everything on the road.