Yes. This is yet another personal diary about voting and volunteering for the Obama campaign.
I suppose just the fact that these diaries are so common on Dkos speaks volumes about Obama’s 50-state ground game. However, since we never know which diary will be inspiring to which reader, I am adding mine to the list.
I had some pretty exciting Saturday plans. After completing a huge milestone for my graduate project, I was finally going to have an hour or two that I could "donate" to Obama. Up until that point, I had only been able to donate money. And while I’m glad I could afford to give moola, I also know that money isn’t everything, and people on the ground are the real heart of the Obama campaign. I wanted to be a part of this historic campaign before it was too late. This was my last weekend to make it happen.
So my Saturday plans included 1) casting my ballot in person in early voting and 2) heading to the San Jose, CA Obama HQ to give them some of my time, probably phone banking to swing states. I got both done, but not quite as planned. It was really exciting and pretty unexpected.
Follow me below the fold for the details of my day.
So first things first, casting my own vote...
Here was my thinking: This is California... We have never had widespread voter irregularities, and the state is a blue as a tropical ocean. So how many people could be inspired to take the time to vote early here, when it will probably be pretty smooth and easy on Election Day?
Boy, oh boy... I was more than a little naïve.
The weekend voting runs until 3:00pm, so I planned to arrive at 2:00pm, and I’d be done and out of there by 3:00 and I could run straight to the Obama HQ (just around the corner) and do a 3:00 – 5:00pm "shift".
Silly me...
The huge parking lot was nearly full when my Significant Other (SO) and I pulled in few minutes after 2:00pm. That was the first indication this was going to be "interesting". The SO dropped me off to "get in line" while he went off to find a parking spot. I walked in the building and was directed quite literally to "take a number". Yep, just like at the deli, when you want to order a sandwich.
My number was 260, and I was told it was "about an hour wait".
I walked into the room with all the other waiting voters and was amazed at how many people there were waiting. I heard a number called, and thought it said "186". I figured that wasn’t too bad... only 85 people to go.
Except I heard wrong.
The number called was 986. They had to get to 999, then start over at 001 with the new roll of 3-digit numbers!! There were actually almost 300 people in front of me! All of them patiently, and quietly sitting in a nice cool room (and in out of the rain, luckily!) At this point, I really regretted being without my camera!
I should also point out that people who were together were allowed to share numbers. For example, my SO and I had only one number between us. So there were perhaps 400 or 500 people in that room. All waiting on a Saturday afternoon so they could vote early... in a state that is as blue as Sinatra’s Eyes. I was floored.
This election is beyond historic, and this was living proof!
By the time all was said and done, they got up to a number over 300 (308 was the last one I heard called, I believe). And that was after the first 999 numbers. So over 1,300 people voted at this one location (which, to be fair should be noted serves all of Santa Clara county). So counting the multiple people per number, it was probably more like 1,500 or 1,800 that voted. One of the Registrar of Voters employees said that this was a record for them for early voting, and the previous record (last week, if I remember correctly) was about 900 people.
We finally voted around 5:00 pm. Yes, we (and hundreds like us) waited over 2 and a half hours to vote early in California! Can you believe that?
Okay, so now, let’s move to the Obama HQ story...
Because it was well after 5:00 when we finished (CA has a ridiculous number of propositions plus local measures to vote on, so it took a little while to actually vote), I decided to just wait until the 7:00pm volunteer shift. I wasn’t sure how strict the "shifts" were, so I didn’t want to be really late for the 5:00 pm start time. Plus, I needed some food before I could plan to work for a couple more hours.
So, my SO and I grabbed some dinner. He decided to stay home after that, and I went back to Obama HQ at 7:00pm. I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was eager to help in any way I could.
I was greeted in the front office and signed in on the volunteer roster. I figured that they would need the most help with phone banking. So, even though I really didn’t want to, I said I could do that. As an after thought, I added that I was also good with a computer, and could do data entry as well. Luckily, they had plenty of phone bankers, and actually had a need for data entry. I was happy to not have to make phone calls, and was proud I had enough forethought to bring my laptop with me.
There was a room with about 6 people sitting at computers, and I set up my laptop in an available corner. We were entering information from the phone banker’s spreadsheets. Specifically, we were trying to eliminate wrong numbers and other people that did not need to be called again, so they could be removed from the lists. It was pretty cool to realize that I was finally a part of this nation-wide organization, and I was entering information for voters in important swing states like Florida, New Mexico, Nevada, and Colorado. All of these voters are in a centralized database, and the level of organization is amazing. I was impressed.
The actual data entry was not really exciting, but some of the things I learned form the woman in charge were really eye opening. She explained how earlier in the day there were so many phone-banking volunteers that they were standing in the stairwells making calls. Just in that San Jose office volunteers had made over 24,000 phone calls in one day!! She said that was a record. The previous record (from 2 weeks ago) was about ½ the number of calls (about 12,000). Now I understood why the evening shift needed data entry... to record the data for all those calls!
The phone bankers stopped precisely at 9:00pm, and us data-entry people all finished up about 9:30pm. With every call from that office having been entered into the central database.
By the time I arrive home it was nearly 10:00pm, and I felt like a million bucks!! I had planned a few hours in my afternoon for voting and volunteering. I had planned to do something a lot more "fun" with my night. But, with a quick dinner in between, I ended up spending almost 8 hours to complete the two activities. There will plenty of time for "fun" evenings after we have a new President Elect!
I guess that all the time I spent was my way of "staying the fuck in line".
I’m happy to say that I’ll be going back tomorrow evening for more data entry. And I’m taking the whole day off Tuesday for the same purpose.
I am so happy that my schedule cleared up in time so I could finally volunteer.
And it’s not too late for those of you who want to be a part of history! Go find your local Obama HQ... (see that "volunteer near you" box with a place to enter your zip code? Go use it!!) they will take any and all help they can get. Even if it’s only for an hour!