Many people still don't have an activity planned for election day.
If the three-to-eight hour waits are any indication Tuesday is going to be a nightmare-especially for the after-work voters. Many people will give up on voting facing a wait like that. Providing any sort of refreshments to waiting voters is a friendly way to encourage people to stay and vote and maybe even sway a few voters. (Most states prohibit canvassing only within 50 to 100 feet of the polling station).
Democratic precincts are usually the longest lines and Democrats usually are the after-work voters.
I've worked the polls before during hot summer primaries without lines when candidates handed out cold bottles of water. This year my neighbor and I are headed to Arlington,Virginia, a true-blue area with a car full of cheap canned sodas and water, juice packets, and peanut-butter cheese cracker paks. A third neighbor is waiting with a car and ready to re-supply as needed. The sodas, juice and water cost $2.25 for a twelve pak at Aldi, about 20 cents each. The cracker paks are 99 cents for an eight-pak or about 12 cents each. My neighbor and I each spent $100 on enough of these for about 600 voters. I expect a few people may insist on helping with the cost but even if no one does it's worth it to me.
We're going to Wakefield first as that's usually the most crowded but will move to another precinct if there are no long lines there. We expect the long lines to start late but are prepared for early work. Hopefully we can split up and do separate precincts. We're both wearing plastic "straw" hats with Obama stickers across the front.
If you live in an area where the lines are expected to be long and don't yet have another last-minute activity, you may want to consider a variation of what we're doing. Convincing potential voters to stay in line really matters.