Heavy GOTV emphasis in early voting is giving North Carolina Sen. Kay Hagan the early lead.
Yesterday I showed how tiny the
margin between victory and disaster really is—about three points. Politico notes that the large number of tossup Senate races is a
recent record:
It’s the largest and most wide-open Senate battlefield in more than a decade: ten races, all neck-and-neck affairs headed into the final days of the campaign.
And it’s not only that there are more competitive races this time around; it’s how close they are that has made the 2014 midterms different from previous cycles. The 10 close contests this year are all separated by five points or less, according to RealClearPolitics polling averages as of Tuesday. Fewer races were that close right before recent midterms: eight in 2010 and five in 2006.
And in recent presidential cycles, there were eight in 2012, three in 2008 and five in 2004 that were equally tight.
These 10 races are all within the margin of turnout operations. GOTV is always important, but perhaps never as important as this year.
So what can you do? At this point, several things:
1) Make sure you talk to everyone in your social circle about voting: your friends, family, co-workers, acquaintances, girl at the checkout counter at the supermarket, neighbor you occasionally nod to when crossing paths, etc. Research is very clear—the best GOTV message is the one that comes from people they already know. And EVERYONE can do that, no matter how much time or money you have or don't have.
And not just people directly around you, either. But friends and family in other states, Facebook friends, even the ones who aren't actually friends, etc.
2) You can give that last $3 to help your favorite campaign GOTV. Today and tomorrow are the last days where money helps. So if you've held out this long, surrender already! There are lots of great campaigns around you who could use the help, or check out our own list of endorsed candidates. Might I recommend our secretary of state candidates page? Georgie is in the process of stealing 40,000 votes because the Republican SoS won't process new registrations. We need to elect Democrats to those positions.
3) Make calls! It only takes a couple of hours, and don't worry about being confrontational or talking to undecided voters. This is all about calling DEMOCRATS to make sure our own people have voted. In other words, a friendly audience.
This election is tight, with everything stacked against us. And yet here we are, within reach of breaking the GOP. It might happen if we all work hard and leave nothing on the road. It definitely won't happen if we sit on the sidelines as spectators.