This is a diary about how to run a voter registration drive. Specifically, it’s about how I run the all-volunteer voter registration drive for the Travis County Democratic Party’s Coordinated Campaign. It is intended to help all of you set up your own voter registration efforts, whether it’s you and a friend on a street corner, or a group of eager individuals at a community event. Read it, print out the text, email the link, however you think it can help. The key is for everyone to start registering voters.

To conduct a voter registration drive, you need three things:

• Volunteers
• Locations
• Supplies

I’m going to cover each of these three aspects below. In the coming weeks, my fellow voter registration all-star casperr and I will post a few more diaries to help you all get involved with voter registration.

This is good timing, because today marks a major milestone in our Austin Vote for Change efforts: tonight we will register our 1000th voter. More on that, too.

If you are in Austin for Netroots Nation, you are invited to stop by the coffee shop and hang out and participate in the fun and joy that is live blogging...

...and/or get properly sworn in as a deputized registrar as we help turn Texas blue(bluer/blue-ier) as thoroughly described in casperr's Vote for Change at Netroots Nation -- you know you want to! diary.

here are the event specs, compliments of my.barackobama.com...

We're at the Hilton Hotel Lobby Coffee Shop*,  (500 E. 4th Street) already (3PM CST) and getting geared up for deputization and training, and heading out to register new Texas Democrats!  The plan is to finish up at 6:00. If you want to join us later in the afternoon, drop a message here.

We're treating this as live news coverage! Offer support to the team! Or just give us some cheers and yays and woots woots! It's all good.

Besides, what beats live-blogging? :)

I'm heading to Austin in the morning, and wanted to post this one more time before I leave.

Want to turn Texas blue with kath25 and me?

A Texas win may be a longshot for Obama, but even if he doesn't win the state, there's a good chance Dems will make gains in downticket races.  Barack Obama and Howard Dean are planning to make inroads in every state in the country.

Want to help kath25 and me turn Texas Blue?

The new Rasmussen poll shows what I've been feeling for a long time now -- the race in Texas between Barack Obama and John McCain is tightening. McCain can't assume that the Lone Star State will love him with votes like they did Bush, even though McCain seems to love him some George W. Bush.

It's so exciting to be on the ground here in Texas helping in this historic election. Obama's rising support is also a great boon for Senate candidate Lt. Col. Rick Noriega. Plus, the Obama campaign has committed tremendous resources to Texas -- a reported 15 staffers, a good number of Obama Organizing Fellows, and even assistance building the infrastructure to help recapture the Texas House of Representatives. It's not just a 50-state-strategy any more. In these parts, it's a 254-county strategy.

But wait, there's more! Best of all, it's how YOU can help Obama close that gap in Texas. Dig your spurs into the flanks of the Republican party, and send them running once and for all.  

There are 6.6 million Americans (excluding the military) living overseas, which would make them the 17th most populous state if they were somehow combined (source).  Add to that over a million members of the armed forces, who are deployed abroad.

So, if you're an American living abroad, this diary is for you.  Here's some help with registering to vote, requesting an absentee ballot and with casting your vote.  Tips on networking with Dems in your area also provided.

let's make change global (as hundreds, i guess thousands, of people are already doing)

So, I came across something called Overseas Citizens Voters Week, which is taking place between Saturday, June 28th and Monday, June 7th. (I also noticed that Republicans Abroad have republished the above notice about the week of voter engagement...)

So, the week is organized by the Federal Voting Assistance Program, which basically works for the Secretary of Defense and is in charge of facilitating overseas voter registration and absentee voting for our military and their families, for our diplomats, and for millions of citizens, who are living abroad either temporarily or permanently.  Considering some of the criticisms that the FVAP received in 2004, the on-line community can play a part in ensuring that this year the Overseas Citizens Voters Week is actually "geared toward non-military voters."  

Want to help turn Texas Blue?

Want to spend an afternoon with fellow Kossacks and local volunteers  making a real difference?

Today on Obama's website, when I clicked on Make Calls, I got this message:

Congratulations! You have made calls from coast to coast and have built this movement one conversation at a time. Now, you can thank fellow supporters for their involvement in this campaign for change and ask them to participate in Vote for Change to register new voters.

For those of us in non-swing states like CA and NY, this might be a fun way to help the campaign. So, let's do our part (and put our free cell phone minutes to good use) by encouraging people in swing states to organize Vote for Change events in their communities.

Your Part of the 50 State Campaign has begun with the same sort of effort that was the start of  Barrack Obama's public life.

Obama's first months in Chicago were spent registering voters in an effort that changed Illinois. The state that had last voted for a Bush over Dukakis before the registration drive became deep blue only after Obama's work.
Among other Democrats who gained office through such efforts was Bill Clinton.  

Now it's time to turn more purple states blue and more red states purple.  You are the change.  People register when they are asked to register.  Change the world by joining Vote For Change.  Asking enough individuals to vote is the key to changing this world.  You are the rubber meeting the road.  You will be the change As we register the voters that will break politics free of our log jammed past.  
  Vote for Change<a</p>

Those of you who are familair with the Southern Political Report know that it is not the most progressive publication out there. As a matter of fact, one of the head honchos was at one time an aide to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich. So, when I saw this article from yesterday, my jaw dropped the floor. According to Tom Baxter, the O-Bomb, as I like to describe Barack Obama's voter registration and mobilization work, is building in a big way for November.

Emails from two sources (one of them our own inestimable slinkerwink) verify that the Obama campaign does not want protests on its behalf of the Democratic National Committee's May 31st Rules and Bylaws Committee meeting to decide the fate of Florida and Michigan.

Few of us are privy to the Obama campaign's overarching strategy.  (At least few of us who are willing to share.)  So, I have spent some time reading the Obama Campaign's tea leaves.

As most of you know, on May 10, Obama launched "Vote for Change," a national voter registration drive with 101 events nationwide on the launch date.  While each state had at least one meeting site, many had more.  In this blog, I'll run a quick analysis of what we can learn from the locations of the rallies, looking for clues, albeit imperfect ones, about the likely Republican and Democratic veep selections, what is the expected impact of the third party candidates, and ultimately, what states are actually in play.  

To begin with a disclaimer: the number of events likely reflect a number of factors, not just campaign strategy.  I.e. favors to Superdelegates, amount of registration work that has already been completed, down ticket priorities, etc.  The events, however, do provide a very rough, but fun, estimate of where the campaign is directing its attack.  

I got an email last night it read:

Join fellow Obama supporters and staff for a Vote for Change registration drive this Saturday, May 24th.

RSVP for an event near you and bring more people into the political process.

I went onto my next email then perused the headlines. But the seed had been planted. I went back to the email and read it again and clicked the link. I saw an event fairly close to where I live. I thought... maybe. I had dinner watched some TV. I got back online and saw the email again... fine I thought and signed up.

I just got an email from an Obama campaign Voter Contact Director.

They want our feedback and have asked us to take a survey.  If you have volunteered for the campaign or have a page on the Obama site you may have gotten one too.  

I'm not sure if they sent it to their whole email list or just sent it to donators, organizers, captains or whatever because I've done all 3.

UPDATE: Based on the comments below it looks like this email is going out to everyone on their list- so please FILL IT OUT!

I do Marketing for a living I know first hand how important it is to have the right intelligence to plan your strategy.

Info. provided below the fold..

This is a "Call to Action" Diary.

We are planning an enormous high profile Barack Obama Vote For Change voter registration effort in one town in Westchester, NY - the village of Ossining.  The event will take place on the weekend of June 14-15.  We began signing up volunteers for this effort last weekend, and we've already signed up 20 volunteers!  We were initially hoping to sign up 50 volunteers, but now we're thinking that we drastically underestimated the enthusiasm for this effort.

Ossining has a low registration rate compared to its neighboring towns.  The goal of this drive is to descend upon Ossining with a small army of Obama volunteers to register the entire town.  Yes, you read that right.  We are going to register the entire town (or at least everyone who wants to), and we have a detailed plan for doing just that.  

Join me below the fold to learn more about this insanely ambitious plan. (Or just click here to sign up.)

Note: I am a blogger for the Barack Obama campaign.

In March of 2007, the campaign launched its first nationwide grassroots event -- Hope Action Change. Thousands of people from all across the country who had used tools My.BarackObama.com to organize locally, got together for house parties and shared their hopes for a better America. From a diary I wrote after spending the afternoon at Janet and Jim Sutherland's home in Council Bluffs, Iowa...

This is what grassroots democracy is all about-- small groups of friends and neighbors coming together to address common challenges and come up with collective solutions.

Over a year later, it's remarkable to see how far this movement has come and how much ordinary people from all across this country have accomplished. This past Saturday, the Obama grassroots took its organization to the next level, kicking off a 50-State voter registration drive. Hardworking volunteers brought scores of new voters into the process and continued the process that began back in their living rooms in March of 2007 -- reinvigorating our democracy.

People are starting to notice the brilliance that is Poblano.  Combining statistical regression, poll analysis, and census survey findings, Poblano managed to peg both Indiana and North Carolina in ways that drew widespread attention and outperformed all pollsters and RCP combined.  

With the Nomination all but wrapped up, the question now becomes: What path to Victory does Obama have?  And more importantly, is his Team already several steps ahead of the analysis?

In recent posts on 538 (essential reading), Poblano has again worked brilliance and paved the path to victory for Barack Obama in the Fall General Election Campaign.  Follow me over the jump for some statistical bliss.

Give Poblano some Mojo