Voter Registration Ideas Thread

I expect a lot of folks on DailyKos have done a lot of work the past few months for the Obama campaign.  We've learned a lot about the most effective ways to do things like register voters, persuade them about Senator Obama, and drag people to their polling sites.  

In the next few months, the key for the Obama campaign and Democrats in general is to turn the excitement about the historic candidacies of Senator Obama and Senator Clinton into increased ranks of registered voters. Since this website has a great ability to aggregate and disseminate knowledge, consider this thread an opportunity to share ideas about the best way to make this happen.  

A Virginia organizer for the Obama campaign asked the local volunteers in my community to help come up with ideas about how to best mobilize volunteers, so hopefully I will be able to distill some of the information and send it up the chain.

Here are some of the ideas I've come up with along with another volunteer who has done extensive work for the campaign. Some of these have been implemented already, others not so much.

1. Canvass night club and night life districts to register young urban voters. In places like New York City have registration forms for New Jersey and Connecticut. In Washington D.C. have forms for Virginia, the District and Maryland, etc.

2. Canvass the crowds outside concerts at large venues, especially events that attract a high proportion of likely Obama voters.

3. Canvass sporting events: professional, collegiate and recreational (there are softball leagues, basketball leagues, and kickball leagues that can be canvassed for both registrations and volunteers)

4. Register voters while riding public transportation or at stations. Sometimes local police can kick you out so go through the process of obtaining necessary permits ASAP.

5. Run concerts and events with preferred seating for people who bring completed voter registration forms.

6. Door-to-door canvass where there will be many Democrats based on analysis of existing registrations and past election results. Since the campaign walk lists are based on registered voters this canvassing probably needs to be blind, so its best to target areas where the average door knock is more likely than not to prefer the Democratic candidate.

7. Focus on registering college freshmen and other college students in the towns their colleges are located rather than their hometowns. This increases the likelihood they complete a ballot because they can vote in person rather than absentee. This will require a big blitz in August and September when students go back to their schools.

8. In swing states, focus on registering high school seniors who are leaving to go out-of-state to indigo blue states before they leave for college and are easier to reach. Ideally work with high schools over the next month before graduation.

Anyway, critique these ideas and offer your own. I'll update the body of the diary with good ones.