George's Blog - Archived Entry

So here I am, a typical middle class guy, happily married, proud father of two great kids submitting my email address to this www.drivingvotes.org group that I don’t know from diddly. How the heck did I end up here?

For the opening of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 911, I went online in search for some flyers I could pass out at one of our local theatres. During the course of my research I quite accidentally stumbled across this www.drivingvotes.org website. Being a Californian, I know that there is a strong likelihood that Kerry will easily carry the state in the general election and win all of the state’s 54 electoral votes regardless of his margin of victory be it 1 vote or 1 million votes. Now granted there are other reasons to be active in California for the general election, i.e. propositions, local races, state senate and assembly races, but in terms of the presidential election, it makes more sense to direct our efforts in battleground states where hundreds of votes really can make a difference. No one needs to be reminded of the 537 vote difference in Florida, a 7000 vote difference in Oregon, 20,000 vote difference in Nevada, a 366 vote difference in New Mexico.

One can only be struck by the irony of the fact that while our government is trying to impose democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq, our own democracy awards the presidency to the guy who came in 2nd in the popular vote. I can only complain that my brother’s and sister’s vote in their home state of Alaska carries greater electoral weight in our electoral system than my vote in California or that neither of the two major candidates for President will spend much time campaigning in the state that has 1/7th of our nation’s population.

Lamentations on our nation’s presidential electoral system aside, our current electoral system does provide one justification for such a group as drivingvotes.org. Real political grassroots efforts to register voters and GOTV (Get Out the Vote) activities in these battleground states can have huge consequences for our nation. It may not matter that much in the presidential election that I can register an extra 200 voters in California, but 200 voters in Nevada could very possibly swing the state and award all of the state’s electoral votes to Kerry.

Internet activism has transformed how campaigns are conducted now. I have clicked on more “sign our petition” buttons than I can count over the course of the last year and maybe that does have an impact but who knows. The beauty of drivingvotes.org is that a simple click leads to very real world activities that lead directly to getting more people involved in the political process, many of whom might not have gotten involved if you didn’t find yourself going door to door in 107 degree heat in a Las Vegas neighborhood taking the time to ask fellow citizens what concerns they wanted addressed in the upcoming election. Maybe I’m just chasing windmills, but I truly believe that I and the other great people I’ve met in drivingvotes.org can make a difference in this election. My two kids are counting on me.