Blodgett gave me a run down of the Obama campaign’s GOTV plans in Minnesota. If I had to describe the effort in one word, it would be “wow.”
First things first, if you are not yet signed up to help during this last week, go to www.gotvforchange.com right now. You can enter your zip code and find the campaign action center closest to you, even sign up for a specific shift.
Now onto the nitty gritty details. With Blodgett in charge, you will not be surprised to find out that the Obama campaign in Minnesota has been heavily focused on a grassroots ground game. Since June 1, the Obama campaign has had 1 million conversations with voters in Minnesota. That’s stunning.
But, as the saying goes, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
There are 37 Obama offices in Minnesota. During the last four days of the campaign, that will expand to 130 GOTV action centers spread out from Grand Marais to East Grand Forks to Worthington to La Cresent. Why the massive expansion? The campaign has to accommodate some 20,000 volunteers who have already committed to helping during those final days (including 10,000 who have already signed up to help on Election Day alone!) To put this in perspective, in 2004 the Kerry campaign had about 10,000 volunteers during the final GOTV period and 5,000 volunteers on Election Day.
That’s right – the Obama campaign has doubled what the Kerry campaign did in Minnesota just four years ago.
Its also worth noting that the 20,000 volunteers are just what the Obama campaign brings to the table – it doesn’t count the Franken volunteers, the Madia volunteers and all the other great DFL campaigns that will bring volunteers to the coordinated GOTV effort.
So what will this army of volunteers be doing? The Obama campaign has identified a universe of 500,000 sporadic and new voters who they think are likely to vote for the DFL ticket if they get to the polls. Each one of these 500,000 people will be contacted 4 to 6 times between now and Election Day. The vast majority of these contacts will be made through doorknocking, though phone banking will be used in rural areas.
People say this every campaign, but there is no doubt it is true this time around: this is the largest GOTV effort in Minnesota history.
You can be part of it by going to www.gotvforchange.com today and signing up for a shift. If you are wondering where you need to go to vote, head to www.voteforchange.com, which will direct you to your polling location.
holy cow, blodgett gave you half an hour? i’m impressed
But seriously, I have been totally impressed as I’m preparing walk sheets for apartment buildings in HD61A, that SO MANY of the individuals on the list have already been contacted, or had SEVERAL attempts made to contact them, to help potential voters prepare for voting. It is mindboggling. I wonder how many phone calls have been made, and how many doors have been knocked already? thousands and thousands and thousands in CD5 alone…..
Do people want change? Do people want President Obama? uh… YEAH.
My friend who doorknocked in a usually very apathetic area said she was stunned and delighted that people of all ages are really pumped about Mr. Obama. Apathy is much harder to find this year. May it rest in peace.
Great news!
Excellent post, really put help my work at St. Thomas into perspective. 130 action centers, that is pretty damn huge. I can say on the college front, McCain is simply going to annhilated. I dont think there will be a single presence of McCain on my college campus nor probably any others and the Obama crew, we’ll be working for those votes hard.
Cant wait to see how we all do,
That’s true as well for CSB/SJU. We just had a Tink at an event tonight and he will be here tomorrow shaking hands again. We also had R.T. Rybak here on Saturday. Not a single Republican candidate from President on down to state house has had a presence here on campus.
But we still have seven more days of work to do….