Calling all Medievalists

Anyone who ever had to take a palaeography course can now put it to good use. The NYC Obama field office down at 52 Broadway has a stack of 30,000 voter registration cards from PA that need to be entered into their database. (Your local Obama field office probably has stacks of them too.) These will be used for get-out-the-vote and voter-assistance efforts on election day, and they need to be entered THIS WEEK.

Why are palaeographers helpful? Because some of these voters' handwriting is akin to Merovingian script, especially the 85 year olds who are registering to vote for the first time (those cards are sweet and make me smile). Turns out it's really helpful to have one person in the room who can help the other data entry volunteers when they can't decipher something.

The work is easy and you can do as much or as little as you have time for (I brought a big stack home and divided it among my friends). The field office is an inspiring place to be, full of fun, jokes, and camaraderie. And you don't have to talk to anyone on the phone.