Leah's Blog - Archived Entry

Pennsylvania’s voter registration closed this past Monday, October 4—but not before a record number of DV volunteers poured into Philly from all over the Northeast to register new voters. By the end of the weekend, 125 volunteers from Boston, New York, New Jersey, Philly and Baltimore had hit the streets to canvas in Philly and its surrounding swing suburbs, registering...832 voters! Kirby, our Philly captain, outdid herself by training all these volunteers –72 volunteers in one sitting!

We met up at the ACORN office Sunday evening to turn in our last forms, get a final count, and talk with Wes, ACORN’s PA director for Project Vote. It was a year ago this weekend that Wes started ACORN's voter registration campaign for PA—a campaign that has since registered 130,000 new PA voters (overwhelmingly Democratic) by the time the deadline closed on October 4. Take a moment, if you will, and consider this number: one hundred thirty thousand. Roughly 2 million PA Democrats voted for Gore in 2000. ACORN’s efforts alone could give the Dems a 15% boost this year.

If they all vote.

Yes, said Wes, he was thrilled that so many new voter registration forms had poured into the office before the deadline. Yes, the numbers of new voters have exceeded everyone’s expectations—but voter registration forms aren’t ballots against Bush. To ensure victory on Election Day, Wes stressed, we have to make sure that every registered voter gets to the polls and votes. And that is going to be a hell of a lot of work. In swing states like Ohio and Florida, Democratic groups like Driving Votes have out-registered the Republicans 10 to 1. In PA, Board of Elections offices were overwhelmed on the deadline with new registrations. If we can get all these voters to turn out on election day, we’ll win—it’s just that simple. And we won’t just get victory--we’ll send Bush out with a message his administration can’t deny, bury, spin, or hide: AMERICA WANTS CHANGE.

That’s what GOTV work is all about—and it’s the most critical phase of our campaign so far. From now until Election Day, DV will be in Philly, New Hampshire and West Virginia every weekend, having face-to-face contact with voters and ensuring that on November 2nd, they get to the polls and vote for change in unprecedented numbers.

Go forth, DV Northeast!

Our Boston/Providence crew prepares to head for home after turning in our 832 forms to ACORN

Amy of Boston poses with Kirby, Driving Votes’ Philly Captain Extraordinaire.

In July, Dave challenged us to register 1776 Philly voters. This weekend we cleared 2000. By a lot.

Joe from ACT prepares a crew to do a persuasion canvas in Horsham, a key swing suburb in Montgomery county.

Leah receives a message from God, via the Philadelphia Weekly.

Kansas registers a voter at the Dunkin Donuts across the street from ACORN

When a simple “Kerry/Edwards” sign is not enough.

Yarrow counts our 832 completed forms in the ACORN office at the end of Sunday.

We were even at the Vote for Change Concert this weekend. Here Dean ponders America under a Springsteen adminstration.

We’re not sure how they got Driving Votes Director Leighton Woodhouse’s car to the Vote for Change concert. But they did.