Give A Day

Our Time is Now -- Help on the Last 4 Days

Supporters like you can make a huge difference by taking a short trip to a key battleground state or making phone calls to undecided voters.

Will you commit right now to volunteer on one or more of the four crucial days leading up to Election Day?

Watch David Plouffe's strategy update below, then sign up by filling out this form.

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).

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)?

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.

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