VOTE for CHANGE -- 1,400 New Yorkers take to the streets! UPDATED with video

Today was the launch of a massive 50-state voter registration drive, VOTE for CHANGE. The Obama campaign is building it's volunteer base and increasing voter participation.

The Big Apple kickoff of the VOTE for CHANGE campaign was a HUGE success. Here's a photo diary of the day's activities.

The main event was a rally and training session at the Mother AME Zion church in Harlem. I arrived early to help set up for the event.

People started lining up before the noon start time. Before long there was a line half way down the block.

By 12:00 the line was all to the end of the block.

We opened the doors and people started signing in.

More and more people entered, but the line outside continued to grow.

The church began to fill up...

...but the line was still all the way down the block.

Once the crowd was inside, it filled up the entire main area and a third of the balcony. 1,400 New Yorkers came out today to register new voters!

The church's Senior Pastor, Rev. Gregory Robeson Smith addressed the crowd.

He was followed by two NY State elected officials who have supported Barack from the start (and that's not an easy thing for NY politicians to do!), State Senator Bill Perkins and City Councilwoman Helen Foster (no pic of her, I'm afraid).

After the rally, volunteers gathered outside to join up with neighborhood or borough groups.

It was a bit chaotic, but somehow it worked :)

I headed downtown to see how my neighborhood captains were doing.

Here are some of the volunteers at Union Square.

And here are some who worked the area around Tompkins Square Park in the East Village.

I don't know how many voters we registered in New York City today, but if my downtown group is any indication, we did very well.

I can't wait to hear reports from around the country.  

"If we’re going to push back on the special interests and finally solve the challenges we face, we’re going to need everyone to get involved. Over the next six months, Vote for Change is going to bring new participants into the process, adding scores of new voices to this critical dialogue about our future. --Barack Obama

New York volunteers are FIRED UP and ready to take our country back!

UPDATE: Here's a video that distraught posted in the comments. You can get a much better sense of the line from this than from my photos. There's another one there, too; be sure to check it out.