Folks, it's VERY late in the game. Voting actually begins October 1st! We on the Left need to get with the program and realize that we don't have an "election day" in the US, when half the states begin voting in earnest on October 1, 2008.
BUT WE STILL HAVEN'T DEFINED JOHN MCCAIN NEGATIVELY. FORGET ABOUT PALIN AND HER ANNOYING-VOICE
McCain and his people like Mike Salter, KNOW that election "DAY" really isn't election "day" in over half the country. Mummy McCain hails from the state of Arizona that, with all its flaws has a mature, very progressive election system and allows early voting (for many many years), clean elections, and even public funding for state elections. Thus, McCain's campaign has PERFECTED "early voting programs". They have had to. There's no way they couldn't have, running in that state all these years. I am not quite sure that Obama's team is that gung-ho on the early voting thing. Or that many people on his team even understand it. But Obama's team, or someone ON their team (who they actually listen to) HAD BETTER BE:
Because, in states like Arizona, ANYONE, for any reason, can vote either "in-person" or by mail 33 days out from the "official" election day. Thus, in Arizona candidates can start bagging hundreds of thousands of votes STARTING OCTOBER 1ST. That is HUGE. And other states are the same way and have similar systems. It's NOT just Arifuckingzona. Arizona has had this for a long time and I used to run early voting programs there. And, in many weird and important ways, they are the polar opposite of traditional 1980s-style GOTV that were perfected for the dynamics of that dinosaur we continue to refer to as the day of the election. It's a whole different world out there.
YET WE STILL HAVE NOT DEFINED JOHN MCCAIN
My point about eary voting, is in most states where it exists and has been around a while, FIFTY PERCENT OF ALL VOTES CAST ARE WELL BEFORE ELECTION DAY. So, October first is the REAL deadline for the mummy to be defined. Early voting is so important, because it allows a campaign to "bag" votes and thus it lessens the burden on election "day" GOTV. In EV states, it ought to be called election MONTH.
The extended text is verbatim out of a book I wrote about campaigns from years ago. Now forgive me if soem of it has changed. It was written in 2001. Arizona's election laws are governed under A.R.S. Title 16. And that section of the law changes often. And I no longer live there and run campaigns as an expert in early voting programs. I moved to Massachusetts to legally marry my gay male spouse. The point of the diary is LESS about Obama's ability in Early Voting (though in the EV primary states, like CA, AZ, NM, etc..., HRC recruited the best early voting people and she kicked ass in early votes. So this isn't about that, exactly. It's about having McCain defined down WHEN early voting begins. You don't want an independent voter getting an early ballot for McCain like around now bevause that early voter may vote for the mummy, then regret it later. But then it's too late. Obama has to have McCain down in the polls by October 1. Period. Just watch.
EARLY OR ABSENTEE VOTING:
***Just a reminder: This piece of the book was written seven years ago. Most of the laws still apply in Arizona, but EVERY state's early voting system has a Statute Title it is under. And that Title can give your campaign, running in ANY state, no matter low it is, like running for Major of Wassila, to the highest offices.***
Early voting is now the second most important part of campaigns behind TV, especially in the primaries. A candidate for public office must have a state of the art, comprehensive early voting campaign to be competitive. The problem with early voting and why so many otherwise knowledgeable political consultants do no use them as part of their campaign plans is that they are highly technical and require one to have thorough knowledge of the election laws of their state and how to find loopholes in the law. The trick is to study the campaign laws of your state and devise a strategy around what you learn. It is extremely important to have a good absentee ballot program as part of your campaign. Now more than half of all votes are cast prior to election day, and the percentage increases with every election. In fact, election day is nothing more than the last day to vote. In an effort to cut costs, some states are even considering doing away with traditional, ballot box elections and mandating that all votes be cast by mail, or perhaps, in the future, the internet. Indeed, elections where voters go to a polling place and pull a lever are increasingly a thing of the past. The more educated the voter is, the more likely they are to vote absentee. Currently, statistics indicate that the percentage of people who vote has gone down with every presidential election cycle. However, as the percentage of the people who vote goes down, the percentage of the people who actually do the voting tend to be the more educated and affluent in society. The education and affluent vote by absentee in far greater numbers than the less education and less affluent.
The targeted voters in an early voting program vary whether it is a primary or general election. If it is a primary and independents can vote in either party's primary, the targeted voters should be the party of which you are running and the independents. Obviously, in a primary where independents cannot vote, only target those who are registered to vote in your party. In a general election, only independent voters should be targeted. In a general election, it should be assumed that you will carry ninety percent of your party's votes, so it is a waste of time and money to target them. In a general, you do not want to target the opposite part because you do not want to increase their turnout. Early voting programs are more effective and necessary in primaries than they are in general elections.
A state with a good example of an early voting process is Arizona. In the state of Arizona, anyone who is a registered voter can vote by mail with an absentee ballot for any reason. In fact, in the more affluent areas, more than seventy percent of all votes are cast this way. According to state law, one can vote by mail beginning thirty-three days before the election. You can even physically go down to the county recorder's office and vote in person beginning thirty-three days before election day. If you vote by mail, the ballot must reach the recorder's office by the Friday before the election.
The registered voter must first fill out an application for an absentee ballot and send it to the recorder before they are mailed an actual ballot. The county recorder mails every registered voter an application for the absentee ballot about one month before voting is to begin (about two months prior to election day). However, there are no rules governing what constitutes an application or whom may mail an application or what can be on the application. The law only specifies the information that is specifically needed by the county recorder in order to process the actual mailing of the official ballot. According to Arizona law, the only information that needs to be on the application is the person's name, address, date of birth, and signature. That's it. The law does not forbid a partisan campaign from sending out applications for absentee ballots with their letterhead on it or even their address to where it should be mailed. Theoretically, one can fill out an application for an absentee ballot on a piece of toilet paper and turn it into the recorder's office and then get sent out an official ballot. Incidentally, in Arizona, one can register to vote on any piece of paper, as long as it contains the necessary information.
This is the basic strategy for an early voting program in a state with laws similar to Arizona's:
The campaign mails out applications for an early ballot to every voter who voted early in the last election.
The application is printed on campaign literature.
The address where to send in the application is the campaign's address.
The applications are mailed out two months before the recorder mails out theirs.
Let the completed and received applications build up at headquarters for one month, taking note of who did not send theirs in.
Follow up with a phone call voters who did not send theirs in and ask them if they need a new application mailed to them.
The campaign then turns in all the applications at once, the first day that the recorder's office can accept them.
Calculate what day it will be when all of the voters who turned in an application receive their ballots. Then, on that day, and perhaps a day or two after, call every one of them and ask if they indeed received their ballots and if they needed any "help" in voting.
If possible, instruct the voters that need help over the phone. If need be, send out a campaign worker to the voter's home if they still are having trouble.
Most of the early votes should then be safely in your column.