Today I discovered something on Facebook that may have been around for a while but is new to me (and I spend way too much time there so I'm thinking it may be brand new).
You can pledge your vote for any presidential candidate and facebook (if you allow) will forward your information to the campaign so they can put you in their supporter list. THIS IS HUGE!
As a campaign staffer I can tell you nothing is more valuable then building that list of supporters (I'd rather get 10 valid IDs than a $100 donation any day of the week). Not just because it makes everyone feel good, but each ID'd supporter is one less person that a volunteer has to call, one less door to knock, one less person to mail "persuasion mail" to, etc... In short, it saves tons of time and money.
It doesn't matter how good your Get Out The Vote operation without a good list of supporters. Let's help the Obama campaign build their list so we can take our country back!
Back in 2006 we tried something similar by setting up a "Tell us You Support Us" form for a Congressional campaign in Virginia and it worked wonders. Through in everyone who has come online then, plus the networking/viral ability of Facebook and this could literally save the campaign the cost of multiple organizers.
In order to pledge your vote, there needs to be a "cause" for your candidate.
There are tons of "I support Obama" groups (but remember, needs to a cause), but none specifically for pledging your vote. Since the primaries are by state I thought it would be best to make a group for each state, DC, territory, Democrats Abroad, etc... that sends delegates to the DNC Convention.
I created the I Pledge My Vote for OBAMA in the VIRGINIA January 12th Primary cause since I live in Virginia.
This is where I need YOUR help. I wanted each cause to be created by someone in the state, territory, etc... So will you step up and create a cause for your home state? It literally takes less than 5 minutes and I'll even include the link to start a cause on facebook.
When you're making the cause just make sure the "beneficiary" is -Political Campaign/Democratic Presidential Campaigns. After you create your cause go to "edit" then "settings" and turn on the "Enable this cause to collect vote pledges for the candidate it supports" because the default is set to off.
After you make the cause, come back here and tell us so I can keep compiling a list of of the causes to prevent duplicates and allow readers to join their respective state cause.
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The List
Virginia - I Pledge My Vote for OBAMA in the VIRGINIA January 9th Primary