The special election in NY-20, the results of which will no doubt be followed closely here on Tuesday night, is at hand.
This is the link for phonebanking.
I've cajoled, shamed, pressured and enticed people into participating in phonebanking this race. Lots of people have stepped up. On this day, between the weekend and GOTV day, I just want to invite people to step forward and say what they've done -- phonebanking, canvassing, other volunteering, donation, or what have you -- and let the example being set perhaps encourage a few others to join the same.
That's the "roll call" part. Here's the "pledge" part. The DCCC site parcels out phone numbers 20 at a time. I want to ask those who haven't phonebanked yet to consider pledging to call 20 numbers tonight (before 8 pm ET) and/or tomorrow for NY-20.
Phonebanking isn't hard. In fact, I'll show you how not-hard it is.
This is the new script, as of this morning, for when we reach live voters. DCCC has not updated the voicemail script. I suggest that this one (slightly adapted) is preferable for voicemail also. (DCCC, if you're out there, please update!)
Hi. I'm {your name} and I am a volunteer with Scott Murphy for Congress. How are you? ...Great!
Tuesday is Election Day and your vote is crucial to winning and turning around this economy. This is a tight race, and Scott, who has been endorsed by President Obama and Senator Gillibrand, needs your vote. The polls are open between 6 am and 9 pm. If you need help finding your polling place, call 518-761-2009. So, on Tuesday, can we count on you voting for Scott Murphy?
I've made some slight changes, which are in bold:
Hi. I'm {your name} and I am a volunteer with Scott Murphy for Congress. How are you? ...Great!
Tuesday is Election Day and your vote for Scott Murphy is crucial to helping President Obama turn around this economy. This is a tight race, and Scott, who has been endorsed by President Obama and Senator Gillibrand, needs your vote. The polls are open between 6 am and 9 pm. If you need help finding your polling place, call 518-761-2009. We hope that you will come out tomorrow for Scott Murphy and tell your friends to do the same. Thanks for your time.
Here's an odd twist of fate. It looks like I may be having oral surgery tomorrow morning. If so, I honestly don't know whether I'll be making any more calls at all for this race; I may not be able to speak intelligibly. That will be a bitter irony, if it happens, but that's how life goes sometimes.
If that happens, it means that other people will need to pick up the slack -- and perhaps make the difference in this race.
Let us know below if you will be one of them.
Either way, many thanks to my band of tossed-together colleagues in this effort. It's been fun.
I hope that we win, but that's beyond our control. What I really hope, what is within our control, is that we will do the work we need to do to win.