Northern New Jersey Needs YOU

While Obama is up by 3% points in New Jersey, everyone I've talked with is frank that race is going to be an issue when people are in the voting booth, and it's anything but a sure thing. New Yorkers, you are needed to canvas and to Get Out The Vote as we get closer to election day.

I spent part of the afternoon registering new voters at a Hoboken street fair through a group I found on the Obama website. Hudson County for Obama, a grassroots organization that works in partnership with the Obama for America campaign, Hudson County Democrats and the NJ for Obama grassroots organization, is actively seeking volunteers. Only a PATH train ride away, here's a chance to make a difference on the ground. There is a fair amount of concern that NJ Obama supporters may be taking the state for granted, and focusing efforts on PA. Contact information is listed below.

Grassroots County Leaders:
Jennifer Riggins (rigginsforhoboken@gmail.com)
Richard Moon (richardjerseycity@gmail.com)

To be filed under "How stupid do they think we are?"

Updated: this seemed more plausible before my second cup of coffee.

I've been doing, not posting, but I had to put this up before I leave for voter registration in NJ. If it happens, we need to demand media accountability.

From Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo:

"It Would Be Fantastic."

By Josh Marshall

I take everything I read about American politics in the British papers with a grain of salt. But giving what we've seen so far, I can't say I'd be surprised if the moral jalopy that is the McCain-Palin Straight Talk Express sunk us even further into farce with something like this. From the Times of London ...

In an election campaign notable for its surprises, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice- presidential candidate, may be about to spring a new one -- the wedding of her pregnant teenage daughter to her ice-hockey-playing fiancé before the November 4 election.

Inside John McCain's campaign the expectation is growing that there will be a popularity boosting pre-election wedding in Alaska between Bristol Palin, 17, and Levi Johnston, 18, her schoolmate and father of her baby. "It would be fantastic," said a McCain insider. "You would have every TV camera there. The entire country would be watching. It would shut down the race for a week."

Phone Banking for Shy People

In the 5 days since I sent the email, several people have responded with some version of the following:

"I want to help with phone calling, but I'm really shy. I don't feel like I know the issues well enough. I think I'm not good at convincing people to support Obama."

Now, that's debatable in many of these cases, but there's no reason to give yourself an anxiety attack when there are so many ways to support the campaign.

There is a HUGE need to mobilize New Yorkers to go to Pennsylvania and other swing states - which means there is a similarly huge need for volunteers to do phone outreach to people who have signed up to do weekend trips and attend Camp Obama/Field Organizer trainings. Yes, I (and the campaign) know many of you did this weeks ago and still haven't heard anything. This is an ideal and critically important opportunity for anyone who feels shy, or uncertain about his/her ability to sway undecided voters. I just spent the evening phone interviewing Camp Obama applicants and connecting people to opportunities to go to PA - it's both totally inspirational and as easy as inviting people to the best party in town.

I talked with a few dozen people who were either willing to put their lives, jobs and families on hold for 5 weeks to volunteer in a swing state, or wanted to dedicate multiple weekends to go to Pennsylvania between now and the election. One woman whose husband lost his Wall Street job last week told me she was willing to quit hers to become a Field Organizer "because the most important thing I can do for my family is to make sure Obama gets elected." I almost wept in the middle of the phone bank.

"Get people to Pennsylvania" phone banks are taking place every weeknight between 5 and 9 at the Teamsters Union office on W. 14th Street in Manhattan. I am getting more information about the formal sign up process (I was subbing for a "community organizer" friend who had an unexpected meeting), and will post it as soon as I have it. Or email me, and I'll give you a backdoor email address to sign up.

Everyone should do try to do this at least once.

Get your absentee ballot

If you live in a blue state and plan to travel to a battleground state on election day, don't forget to get your absentee ballot now!

http://govoteabsentee.org/

Share this link around. Finding information on absentee and early voting in various states can be daunting, but this is easy.

Wanted: techies to work for voting machine companies

We have been warned.

"The maker [Premier, formerly Diebold, Election Systems] of touch-screen voting machines used in half of Ohio's counties has admitted that its own programming error is to blame for votes being dropped in some counties.

The problem can't be fixed before the Nov. 4 election, so Premier Election Solutions and Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner are issuing guidelines to counties for how to avoid the problem."

-Columbus Dispatch, "Ohio's voting machine glitch exposed: Touch-screens can't be fixed before election, Brunner says," Thursday, August 21, 2008

**************************************
As part of a post on the Obama campaign lawsuit to fight voter suppression in Michigan, Mudflats, my favorite Alaskan poltical blog, shares 1) the following sobering reminder that as things stand, ultimately our votes only count if the corporations operating our voting machines say they do and 2) a call to action from Black Box Voting for techies to apply for jobs with these companies leading up to the election, and for the rest of us to be watchdogs.

From Mudflats:

Many of the same suspect voting machines that were in play in the last two elections still exist. There has been no significant vote reform and there’s nothing we can do about that at this point. What we can do is be the eyes and ears at the polling places.

The election watchdog group Black Box Voting, has sent out the following request. If you are not familiar with this group, you should be. The website is extensive, and there’s also a great documentary Hacking Democracy (available on Netflix) which tells the story of this organization and the amazing woman who started it all. This is possibly the single most important issue facing our country, because without preserving the integrity of the vote, we have nothing.

They also have a downloadable Tool Kit for the upcoming election on the website.

So do what you can. If you’re a blogger, post this. If you’re a tech, read below and get a job. Engaged citizen? Go to the website to learn more. Download a tool kit. Be prepared and know what to look for at your polling place.

It happens everywhere. In 2004 there were districts in Alaska that reported a voter turnout of more than 200%. I like to think we’re politically engaged, but not to the point that every registered voter makes it to the polls twice. These issues have still not been resolved. And who is heading up the division of Elections for the upcoming vote in 2008? Sarah Palin’s Lieutenant Governor Sean Parnell.

***************************************************************

Widest possible distribution needed. Please do spread this in blogs, etc: http://www.votersunite.org/info/ReclaimElections.pdf

This post will no doubt produce howls of objection for the vendors that read it. Black Box Voting is encouraging all individuals with a technical background to search and apply for temporary tech ELECTION SUPPORT jobs for the November 2008 election.

Hiring is underway for temporary technicians to help with voting machines this fall. Vendor dependence is undermining the structure of US elections, as described here in the new report by VotersUnite.org:

We want to see You, the People, enter into the vendor mix directly.http://www.blackboxvoting.org/toolkit2008.pdf

HOW TO FIND TEMPORARY ELECTION TECH POSITIONS:

In a presidential election year, voting machine vendors will hire and train thousands of technicians staffed around the country. For example, anywhere that Election Systems & Software has a machine, they are under contract to provide an on-site support tech. Hart Intercivic, Premier (Diebold), and Sequoia also use Election Day support technicians.

Temporary election tech support jobs have been spotted on hotjobs.com, rollouts.com, and local tech temp firms like (in 2006) DecisionOne. The tech services firm may be a subcontractor for the big four voting machine companies. Sometimes you’ll find the positions advertised by your local county.

Sites like Rollouts.com have you register in their E-tech database. They search for techs based on skill set and area. There isn’t much in the way of a skill set needed for the election projects.

QUIETLY APPLY FOR THE JOBS

Anyone with tech skills interested in safeguarding the November election is encouraged to register at technical recruiting sites and apply for any election-related projects.

CONSIDER ASKING FOR TIME OFF ON YOUR FULL TIME JOB TO DO THIS. This November, there may be no better way to watch the behind-the-scenes process than to be a stagehand, so to speak.

It is not the vendor, and not the government, that has the right to elections information, it is the PUBLIC. Citizens have inalienable rights to sovereignty over the government they created and pay for. These rights cannot be honored without mechanisms to see all information related to elections, and ultimately, to have control processes that honor citizen sovereignty.

That said, it ain’t gonna happen this November. Therefore it is entirely appropriate, patriotic, and important, for citizens to apply for temporary positions as voting machine technicians to provide inside public oversight for the process.

There will be nondisclosure agreements, which are not appropriate at all for public elections, but it’s a reality now that vendors are trespassing on citizen right to know. There may be issues that arise which the public clearly has a right to know. When that happens, a decision must be made.

YOU WON’T BE THE FIRST

We have already been in communications with other patriotic volunteers who have successfully obtained these positions in the past, and are doing this for November.

THERE ARE ALWAYS WAYS TO DEAL WITH IMPORTANT ISSUES IF THEY ENDANGER THE PUBLIC GOOD. You, the People, are needed on the inside of the elections industry this November.

This is a public service bulletin from Black Box Voting.

Black Box Voting Tool Kit 2008 - free download here:

Empower more election watchdog actions:
http://www.blackboxvoting.org/donate.html
Black Box Voting
330 SW 43rd St Suite K
PMB 547
Renton WA 98057

Voter Protection in Pennsylvania

This weekend I'll be making calls to help recruit thousands of Pennsylvania lawyers and law students to be official poll watchers on Election Day.

Now, I hate the phone (I only have a cellphone, and I won't answer it). I hate talking to strangers. I'm not what anyone would describe, by the remotest stretch of the imagination, as a "people person." But I did this same calling outreach four years ago, and surprisingly enough, I really enjoyed it. It was inspiring to talk to small-town attorneys all over Ohio who were willing to close up their practices for the day and lose income in order to stand in a school gym for twelve or more hours protecting people's right to vote. I wound up having some really good conversations with these lawyers, and I came away feeling like I'd done something that mattered.

This year, it will more important than ever before to have legal volunteers at every single polling place, especially in swing states like Pennsylvania where Republicans are mounting aggressive efforts to disenfranchise, challenge, and intimidate likely Democratic voters.

• In Michigan, Republican state party officials had planned to mail voters whose names appeared on a list of foreclosed homes obtained from the public records office. The idea was to compile a list of people who had been forced to move homes, but had yet to update their voter registration to their new address. Republican party workers stationed at polling stations would then challenge such voters when they turned up on election day.
• Voting rights activists in Ohio and Missouri have reported attempts to use the housing crisis to try to disqualify voters.
• In Ohio, the state Republican party filed a law suit seeking to block streamlined new regulations that make it easier for people to cast their ballot by early voting.
• In Wisconsin, the state's Republican attorney general has gone to court to try to compel poll workers to match voters' names against driving license records.
• Florida, which has a Republican governor, also moved last week to require poll workers to check voters' names against a government database.
• The effort received a boost last April when the US supreme court ruled that states were entitled to require voters to present a state-issued photo ID such as a driving license at the polls. Civil rights organizations argued that the requirement discriminates against the poor and the elderly, who often do not have driving licenses because they cannot afford a car. More than 20 states now require voters to show ID at the polls, and there have been a series of recent reports about elderly people losing their right to vote.

Source: "Democrats ask court to defend right to vote", The Guardian 09/17/08

If you'd like to make some calls for Pennsylvania Voter Protection, contact:

Pennsylvania Voter Protection Team
Campaign for Change
voterprotection@paforchange.com
215-563-4429

They'll send you a call sheet, a script for your calls, and FAQs to help you answer any questions the lawyers and law students may ask.

Are you a lawyer, law student, or paralegal? You can sign up online to volunteer for voter protection on Election Day (in any state).

Registering voters in California and Nevada

A Los Angeles resident reminds her California friends:

According to the NYT's electoral map, of our neighboring states: Nevada is a tossup, Arizona is solid red, Oregon (and Washington) are light blue. So Nevada is an excellent place to do some registering of voters...

Also, don't forget that here in California, high voter registration among Dems (and many independent Libertarian types, actually) is vital because of this Prop 8 that will be on our ballot. Prop 8 would AMEND OUR CONSTITUTION so that the fundamental right to marry will be taken away from gay people. Never has our constitution been amended to take away a right, much less something as fundamental as marriage. Not. Cool.

Vote No On Proposition 8
California registration deadline: October 20th
Nevada registration deadline: October 4th (by mail) or 14th (in person)

Add the Obama web portal to your email signature

More from Martha in NYC:

My.BarackObama.com/N2N is a fantastic portal into the whole campaign. Add it as a tag to your email signature and/or business card.

While you're at it, how about adding Walk the Talk '08 (walkthetalk08.blogspot.com)?

Volunteer to protect voter rights

Responding to my plea for voter protection resources, Martha from NYC sent information about two organizations seeking volunteers and donations.

From People for the American Way:

Sign up to get involved on Election Day in one of the following ways:

Become a Pollworker for Democracy

People For the American Way Foundation and CREDO Mobile are partnering to train 5,000 citizen pollworkers who'll play a crucial part in making sure every American can cast a ballot this Nov. 4 and be confident that vote will be counted.

Sign up the be a Pollworker for Democracy by clicking here.

Volunteer with a Local Partner

Our partner organizations in several states can put you to work on the front lines, helping voters with their questions and reporting instances of voter suppression on Election Day. Click here for a list of current partners and cities/states with Election Protection activity.

Get updates about other volunteer opportunities as they arise.

From Election Protection, the nation’s largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition:

If you are an attorney, law student, or paralegal, you can help to protect the right to vote by staffing Election Protection Hotlines across the country and working on the ground as mobile legal volunteers. Sign up here.

You can volunteer even if you don’t have a legal background. Sign up here.

The Election Protection site is an amazing resource for big picture voter protection issues as well as granular state-by-state detail.

A first time activist

Barbara from North Carolina writes:

My cousin sent me your letter. I felt the exact same way, and for the first time got very busy with Moveon.Org. I make phone calls, attend meetings and demonstrations, and I am stunned that I am actually doing something politically positive, other than worrying about it.

Don't know how to talk to Republicans?

Let these lifelong Republicans do it for you:

Register Voters By Oct. 6th

That's the voter registration deadline in Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and many other swing states. This is a video Senator Obama recorded on the need to register voters by Oct. 6th.

Donate to Planned Parenthood "in honor of Sarah Palin"

I nearly snorted my morning coffee when I received this from one of my mom's old friends. I am donating this weekend.

Dear Friends:

Since Palin gave her speech accepting the Republican nomination for the Vice Presidency, Barack Obama's campaign has raised over $10 million dollars. Some of you may already be supporting the Obama campaign financially; others of you may still be a little !@#$ed off over the primaries. None of you, however, can be happy with Palin's selection, especially on her positions on women's issues. So, if you feel you can't support the Obama campaign financially, may I suggest the following fiendishly brilliant alternative?

Make a donation to Planned Parenthood. In Sarah Palin's name. And here's the good part: when you make a donation to PP in her name, they'll send her a card telling her that the donation has been made in her honor. Here's the link to the Planned Parenthood website:

http://www.plannedparenthood.org/

You'll need to fill in the address to let PP know where to send the "in Sarah Palin's honor" card. I suggest you use the address for the McCain campaign headquarters, which is:

McCain for President
1235 S. Clark Street
1st Floor
Arlington , VA 22202


Feel free to send this along to all your friends and urge them to do the same.

Dinners for Obama: Sunday dinners in Soho (NYC)

Yes We Can (eat): www.dinnersforobama.com

Last week I attended the first "Dinner for Obama." Great food, interesting people, excellent conversation and terrific ideas about what we can each do - I started pulling together the WTW email after this meal. I'm all about food changing the world, and I will be making dessert for upcoming dinners.

In the words of chefs Courtney and Richie:

We're extending an invitation to a series of Sunday dinners supporting the Obama campaign. It'll be a fun, casual, totally non-nerdy way to meet other Obama supporters, eat some delicious food, and contribute. Go to www.dinnersforobama.com. It's kind of like those PBS pledge drives, except instead of a tote bag, you get an amazing meal. And instead of ensuring another season of Antiques Roadshow, you're ensuring that a capable leader has a chance to lead this country. Seems like a good deal to me. We are asking for a minimum donation of $150 to Obama Victory Fund after the meal -- please bring a checkbook or credit card as we can't accept cash. Say it again with me: www.dinnersforobama.com. You can read over the menus (each meal is different!) and RSVP. We've got ten spaces available for each Sunday, but they're filling up fast. This week's is a Korean inspired meal. So act now, before they all fill up and you are forced to eat yet another bland, tasteless meal that doesn't help Obama at all! We'll email you all the details once you RSVP, which you can do through here or by emailing dinnersforobama@gmail.com. We just had some cancellations for this evening, so there are 5 spots left -- hope to see you there!

If you can't travel to PA, help recruit people who can

If you can't travel to a less than safely blue state, you can help mobilize other people. From April in NYC:

I have been feeling the exact same way and decided I am going to try to do one thing a week. I've been in touch with the New York Field director and he says the most important thing is recruiting people to go to PA. There is a phone bank M-F nights at the Teamsters Union that is strictly volunteer recruitment, so I am going to go one night a week and try to actually go to PA once or twice before election day.

I'll post more information as soon as I get it. In the meantime, or if you are in another city/state, call your local Obama office.

Big Rapids, Michigan: warm bodies needed to canvas and phone

From Rebecca in Big Rapids, 12 hours after WTW was sent:

I'm on the California Stone Soup list, (tho I just moved to Michigan) and someone forwarded your "Walk the Walk" email to our list. Thanks for the great email.

Since you asked about Michigan, here's the scoop from my town, Big Rapids, in west-central Michigan. We're about 45 minutes from Grand Rapids.

The organizer here is Brian Hardingham at (but he works 18-hour days on the campaign and gets hundreds of emails a day).

We've set up a local Obama office at 209 S. Michigan + wireless Internet and 10 phone lines. We need warm bodies to canvas and phone.
THE OFFICE PHONE NUMBER IS 231-629-8063.

The Great Schlep: support outreach to Jewish voters in Florida

Half an hour after "Walk the Talk" was sent, this arrived in my inbox (you can find more information and the donor forms/FAQs mentioned below at thegreatschlep.com on 9/19/08):

Dear Family and Friends,

Like many of you, I woke up last May to a New York Times headline that read, "As Obama Heads to Florida, Many of It's Jews Have Doubts." The article reported that it's not all Jews in Florida who have been slow to support Obama - it's the elderly Jews.

The Times article got me thinking about how to change the minds of elderly Floridian Jews - people near and dear to my heart. By the end of the day it had come to me: THEIR GRANDCHILDREN. If there is anyone a Jewish grandparent will listen to it's their (brilliant, gorgeous) grandchild. I wrote up a couple of pages of ideas for a marketing campaign, sent it to everyone I knew, and within a few days I was on the phone with a friend's (Jewish, brilliant, gorgeous, recently engaged) son who has a (big) job at a (big) ad agency in New York City.

My idea is about to become a reality: A campaign is underway to help Senator Barack Obama become president, by educating and changing the minds of Jewish voters in Florida. (I know that I don't have to remind you of the importance of this swing state). Our messengers will be their own beloved grandchildren, who, like us, recognize the importance of an Obama victory. The campaign is called THE GREAT SCHLEP.

TheGreatSchlep.com website will target, engage and activate Jews 18-24 years old - the Facebook generation. A viral internet campaign will allow the Jewish young people, a.k.a. Schleppers, to communicate with and meet other Schleppers. Then, on Columbus Day weekend (October 10-13), Jewish kids from all over the United States will schlep to Florida to spend the weekend with their grandparents, a.k.a. Bubbie and Zadie. Organized dinners at Chinese restaurants, pool parties, rec room discussion groups, etc. will faciliate intergenerational pro-Obama discussions. The kids will arrive in Florida with the facts about Obama-- facts that will counteract the false rumors many of their grandparents have heard.

I'm writing today to ask for your financial support of this project.

So, Marla, WHO is ORGANIZING the GREAT SCHLEP?

The Jewish Council for Education & Research (JCER), a political action committee, was created to develop and disseminate information to voters around the issues of concern to the Jewish community. Its premier initiative is JewsVote.org, a campaign that supports core public values, including cultural liberalism, a strong but not beligerant foreign policy, and support for Israel. The website provides users with a range of tools to increase support of Obama, including personal emails and videos. JewsVote.org is where the iPhone meets the local kosher deli. The target market for the site is middle-aged Jews. JCER was founded by Mik Moore and Ari Wallach, two smart, young movers-and-shakers in the Jewish community.

TheGreatSchlep.com is a JCER initiative that will appeal to younger Jews. Its goal will be to give them the tools they need to persuade their grandparents, both on-line and in person, to support Obama. Because not everyone will be able to make the trip to Florida, the site will allow kids to do "virtual schleps" over the course of the election cycle. They will be able to send their grandparents video-grams, and they'll be asked to sign pledges to call their grandparents frequently during the weeks leading up to the election.

Marla, I'm on Board. Where do I SEND MY CHECK

Click on the attached pdf that says Donor Card. Fill that in, and send your (whopping) check -- campaign laws allow you to give up to $5,000 -- directly to JCER. Remember, JCER is a PAC, which means it is INDEPENDENT of the Obama Campaign. This means that the money you give to the organization will NOT apply towards the maximum contribution you can make to the Obama campaign.

And if I SEND a Check, What Will it be Used for?

The money will pay for the websites, travel scholarships for Schleppers, Florida events (the Early Birds are cheap!), travel for organizers, Schlepper persuasion materials, advertising, marketing, and general Schlepper Support. Donations to JCER are NOT tax-deductable.

Well, Marla, I Still Have a Few Questions. Do you Have Answers?

Of course. I have attached to this email a couple of documents that go into more detail about JCER and its founders. And of course, feel free to call me with any questions or concerns.

Marla, Can I do ANYTHING in ADDITION to DONATING MONEY?

Yes. Forward this email to as many people as possible. The more money JCER brings in for The Great Schlep, the more schleppers and their grandparents we'll reach. And remember:

YOU DON'T HAVE TO BE JEWISH TO SUPPORT A SCHLEPPER.

Thank You. Thank You. Thank You.

Marla

"What am I doing?"

It started with an email to friends and family about actions that people, especially those of us who live in blue states, can take to help elect Obama. (It's never lonely or quiet being an Obama supporter in New York City. It is hard to know what to do that will actually make a difference, and the past few weeks have not been pretty or pleasant.) Twelve hours later, I was getting emails from strangers around the country about the amazing work they are doing to support the Obama campaign. At the urging of and with technical support from a friend (thank you, WALK THE TALK), Walk the Talk '08 was born to share this information and to cheerlead people who are getting involved in a campaign for a first time. I will post everything I've received so far (by Sunday, promise), and will keep doing so as new opportunities emerge. You all inspire me, and I hope you inspire each other.

Here's the email, now 24 hours old.

Dear friends who either a) I know or b) I assume are Obama supporters (ignore this email if neither applies):

Like many of you, I've been walking around completely freaking out since the Republican Convention and Palin, muttering to myself and anyone who will listen "What is the Obama campaign doing?" "What is Obama doing?" Last week I realized I was asking the wrong question for me - my question now is "what am I doing?"

I am now trying to put myself on a "diet" of sorts: for every two hours I spend obsessively reading political blogs, I will try to spend one hour taking action. I'm trying not to have any more handwringing conversations unless they end with someone (myself included) agreeing to do something, anything, to help Obama/Biden beat McCain/Palin. I know many of you are already doing things to support Obama. Here's a list I came up with - it's by no means exhaustive, please let me know if you have other ideas - that provides blue staters with some concrete ideas of actions we can take. The Obama website (www.barackobama.com) is an amazing resource for local opportunities to take action in all of these areas and more. Many of you have new jobs, new babies, writing deadlines, lives, endless apartment renovations, etc. I hope there is something that will work for each situation, please share any other ideas.

1. Give Money

Give the maximum $2,300 if you can afford it (I'm putting off buying a new laptop until next year so I can give this amount). If you can't do the maximum, please give whatever you can, and encourage everyone you know who can give $2,300 to do so. If you've already donated the maximum and can afford to give more, you can give to:

• Democratic senate challengers in swing states and/or of people who need not to be senators any longer. The two who are under my skin today are Oklahoma's State Senator Andrew Rice (http://www.andrewforoklahoma.com/index.asp) who is running against Jim Inhofe (I will implode if I try to write anything about him) and former NH Governor Jeanne Shaheen (http://www.jeanneshaheen.org/) who is challenging John Sununu (with NH in play, let's increase Democratic turnout). Your friends in swing and red states may have other Democratic candidates they like, please let me know, and I'll add them to the list.
• 527s (for better or worse, they're with us, so let's use them the best we can). Here are a few options, with samples of the types of ads they are funding, as listed in the attached Daily Kos link. These are just ideas of ways to give, I'm not giving a blanket endorsement. (http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/9/13/12029/3292/616/597390).

2. Register New Voters

Here is the link to Real Clear Politics' electoral college map, updated daily: http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/maps/obama_vs_mccain/ This map chills me to my bone - Minnesota flipped from leaning Obama to toss-up last weekend, Florida flipped from toss-up to leaning McCain a few days ago. The Siena College poll released this week shows the Obama lead in NY down to 5%. Don't panic, mobilize instead.

• If your state is not dark blue, call your local Obama office to see how you can help register new voters, or go to the Obama website. If you are a blue stater, register voters in the closest state that is not dark blue.
• New Yorkers, there are lots of easy ways to do day trips to PA before voter registration closes on October 6th. There are also events in NYC that attract out of state visitors e.g. Madonna concerts (see #8 Join Me) where you and a clipboard can move mountains. NJ is not going to be a slam dunk, but it is an easy train or bus trip away. Today the NY Obama people sent a huge list of opportunities to register people here and in PA. I will forward this if you ask.
• Make sure everyone you know is registered. The last day to register in NY is October 10, in PA it's October 6.
  

3. Phone Bank

• The Obama website has set up a "Neighbor to Neighbor" section where you can call voters in swing states/recruit volunteers from home. Go to my.barackobama.com, and either sign up or register for an account. Once you're logged in, you'll see a list of "Neighbor to Neighbor" campaigns on the left hand side of your screen; click one of them, and the website will take you through the necessary next steps. At the end of the day, you get a list of people who the campaign needs to contact - either prospective volunteers who you could bring on board to increase capacity, or voters who you could convince to vote for Obama. You also get a script to use when you're making calls. When you're done with the calls, you record the results of each call (Was the person home? Will he or she volunteer / vote for Obama? etc.).
• The previously mentioned Obama email has a slew of local phone banking opportunities, and I've listed a few that I'm doing in #8.

4. Door Knock/canvas

We need to make our case on the ground, door to door. The Obama website will have volunteer opportunities listed and/or you can sign up for email alerts of how you can help.

5. Help Get Out the Vote on Election Day

It doesn't matter how many people we convince or register, if people don't show up to vote. Again, the Obama website will have volunteer opportunities listed and/or you can sign up for email alerts of how you can help. On election day, I'm going to vote when the polls open and get on a 7 a.m. bus for PA.

6. Talk to your friends in non-solidly blue states

Find out where/how they need help and round up people to do it. Create an event on the Obama website, there are literally millions of us who will pitch in.

7. Help me figure out who is doing the on the ground work in these areas:

• The Republican voter list challenges are in full swing in Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan among other states (in Michigan, Republicans are challenging the residency/registrations of people who've lost their homes to foreclosure). I want to identify groups on the ground working on this issue that need either money or bodies, in the flesh or over the phone.
• Current or former New York Jews: if anyone knows of any efforts to do phone outreach to Florida retirement communities with large numbers of Jews, please let me know. My leads from 2004 dried up.
  

8. Join me (and/or create a list like this and send it to your people)

New Yorkers, please let me know if you want to join me at any of the following:

• Voter registration in NYC: because they will draw tri-state and PA crowds, I'm doing voter registration at the Alanis Morissette concert at Radio City on Friday 9/26 6-8 p.m, and the Madonna concert at MSG on 10/7. 6-8 p.m.
• Voter registration in Philly: I'm going to Philly on Sunday October 5th. I have 2 spots held for 10/5, and a tentative yes from a partner in crime. If you want to be "waitlisted" for the spot, let me know. It's $20, we'll leave at 10 am and return around 8. PA voter registration ends October 6th, so this is the last gasp to register people. I am planning to go several more times in October/first weekend in November dates TBD, please join me.
• Voter registration in NJ: I'm going to the Hoboken Arts Festival on Sunday 9/28 12-2. It's 2 blocks from the PATH train.
• Phone banking:
• As part of a whole weekend of women's outreach activities, I'm calling PA women this Saturday 12-3.
• One of the union halls is holding phone banking Tuesday nights to reach out to Philadelphia voters. You need to bring your own cell phone. I'm planning on doing 9/30 and 10/14. I have a call into the organizer to see if we can just show up. It's listed in the "New Yorkers for Philly" group on the Obama website.

• And on a more delicious note, there's Dinners for Obama (www.dinnersforobama.com), a weekly Sunday dinner party in Soho. I went to the first one last weekend and the food, company and conversation were all excellent. I highly recommend going, especially as a free dinner+cocktail/wine can make donating the minimum $150 seem less daunting if you are operating on a lean budget. They are trying to raise at least $10,000, and are off to a good start with $2,000 raised at the first dinner. Menus are posted on the site, and I will be donating dessert to future dinners (dates TBD).
• If you have a female dog who has strong feelings about this election, let me know and I can hook her up with a special campaign button for her leash/collar/harness.

Thanks for reading this far. Keep me posted on what you are doing. I'll be your biggest cheerleader and will bake if you are hosting an event - there's too much at stake not to go full tilt in whatever ways we can for the next 7 weeks.