I got up at 3:30 a.m. on election day to prepare myself to go to Las Vegas to help with GOTV. It was actually a tougher decision than I thought it was going to be. After having placed a dozen "No on Prop. 8" signs around Los Angeles, I sat in my car, thinking... should I stay and be a poll watcher in Los Angeles, or go to Vegas and help the Obama campaign? Los Angeles or Las Vegas... Los Angeles or Las Vegas?
Ultimately, I decided to go to Vegas. I had already promised them I would be there. And I hate breaking promises.
I arrived in Vegas Las just short of 9 a.m. Later than I wanted, but there you go. I drove to the Southeast Obama office (which had a huge Dina Titus sign outside) and checked in. The nice elderly lady there informed me they already had enough volunteers.
"Would you be willing to go to Henderson?" she asked. "They need people."
"Sure," I replied.
"It's next to a gun store. But don't talk to the gun store people - they're not our friends."
She handed me a map with directions and I was on my way. Upon arriving at the Henderson office, I was able to confirm that, yes, in fact, the gun store right next door was probably not an Obama outpost. McCain/Palin signs were plastered over every square inch of the storefront. The juxtaposition of it and the Obama campaign office was striking.
Upon entering the office, I won't lie, I was a little worried. There seemed to be about 30 canvassing folders and I was one of just three volunteers in the office at that time. After I checked in, a nice man named Robert partnered me with Astor - an Obamacan! - who was also going to be canvassing.
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Here is Robert.
(this picture was actually taken much later in the day, upon learning that Obama had won Ohio)
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And here is my canvassing partner, Astor. Astor is originally from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia but has been in the U.S. since 1974. She is a Republican who supported Bush originally, but became disillusioned and now supports Obama.
Our canvassing assignments consisted mostly of trailer courts. The following picture is actually not of one of the places we canvassed, but I wasn't able to get a picture of any of them, and I wanted to give some sort of representation of where we were canvassing.
Canvassing in the trailer courts was very revealing. I get the sense that the swing voters among working class folk have turned against the Republicans. While we were in one particular neighborhood, a young couple yelled across the way, "You're not with the McCain campaign are you??" "No, we're with Obama!" we called back. "Good - we would have had to kick your asses out of here!" they exclaimed.
One of my biggest problems with canvassing is that I am an obsessive talker. When I come across a fellow Obama supporter, I just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. I know that's not what we're supposed to be doing, but I can't help myself sometimes. Astor and I had a fantastic conversation with a union guy from Brooklyn. Boy, was he angry at the Bush administration! Running into him gave us our first iota of how the race was going. He told us that Obama was up 9 or 10 points in the first exit poll.
Later in the day, there were many more volunteers in the Henderson office, which was great. For our second and final canvass of the day, we were sent to a more suburban type neighborhood. The nice thing about the Obama campaign is that they are aggressive with their canvassing. They send people to the same houses time and again to make sure that our supporters are actually making it to the polls. By the time we finished canvassing the suburban Henderson neighborhood to which we had been assigned, I would say we were able to verify that 90% of the people on our list had either voted or moved.
Toward the end of the canvassing, I got a text from my friend Sam saying that Indiana and Virginia were "very close." I took that as a good sign. On our drive back to the office, NPR was interviewing the Governor of North Carolina, Michael Easley, who was saying that he honestly thought Obama would win the Tar Heel State.
Upon returning to the Henderson office, the campaign volunteers were nice enough to put me on a computer where I could analyze all the incoming exit poll data for each state. I was floored. We had a clear lead in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Indiana, according to the exit polls. Everyone in the office was entertained by my exuberance over the exit poll data.
Here is Julie, a volunteer from Las Vegas.
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Here is the Obama office pumpkin, from Halloween.
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And here are Frank and Jill, two phonebankers. I believe they had just discovered amongst themselves that they are both from Indiana.
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And here is Hattie, another Las Vegas volunteer for Obama
Upon hearing the news that Obama had captured Ohio, we all knew the election was over. So we headed over to the Rio, where the Democrats were having a huge party in the ballroom there.
Ah, the Rio. I highly recommend the Rio. It's a great place to stay and it is so huge, it's like a little city unto itself.
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Here are some Democratic Party workers looking at data and stuff.
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And here is the crowd going wild upon seeing Barack Obama walk onto the stage at Grant Park.
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And now, here is a picture which I nominate as the cutest of the entire campaign: a little girl holding a sign that reads, "Yes We Did."
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I have to say, I am stunned by the margin of victory in Nevada. I knew absolutely we would win Nevada, but I always assumed it would be by about 5-7 points or less. John Kerry lost Nevada by 2.5 points and Obama won it by 12. Now that's progress!
Kudos to Obama's absolutely brilliant ground game that fought for every last vote and to all of my fellow volunteers without whom this landslide victory would not have been possible.