I'm from Green Bay, Wisconsin, and early voting is both allowed and easy in this state. So why not make it a media event?
The local Democratic Coordinated Campaign office did!
They organized a mass voting event for Obama today at lunchtime. The local Fox and CBS affiliates sent camera crews, the local paper sent a cameraperson and reporter, State Senator Dave Hansen gave an inspirational speech on the County Courthouse lawn, and about twenty of us, including a 2 month old baby (not voting, but attired in appropriate Obama gear) trooped into the county clerk's office wearing Obama badges. It's illegal to do anything political within 100 yards of the polling place, so we were a respectful and quiet crowd. But it was absolutely clear to the county clerks what was going on.
The clerks' faces were priceless. The office was all decorated for Halloween, and they were clearly enjoying a relaxing lunch hour (We could smell the popcorn and microwaved food the instant we opened the door), not planning for an Obama invasion. But in we walked. Their eyes got wide, but they coped. And most of us voted a straight Democratic ticket--though of course ballots are supposed to be secret, this was a publicity stunt, so nobody used the available and optional voting booths to hide their votes.
The other end of this stunt is that many of us are taking election day off to work on GOTV, so we'll be driving people to the polls and working the phone banks then. That's why we voted now. The television interviews with campaign staff made that clear.
In other words, this is an opening salvo in a carefully coordinated Democratic battle to keep Wisconsin Blue on every level.
It was a beautiful day for a bit of politics.