Vote early, vote often
Leslie Carlson
Ballots drop in Oregon at midnight tonight. There are three reasons you should vote early.
The first reason is an altruistic one. The side that turns out the most voters this year will likely win the White House, and presumably many Congressional seats and local races. Both parties and a slew of 527s are out there trying to unearth every possible vote this year. Voting early saves all the campaigns and groups that are looking for Democratic votes money and time to move on to the next likely D voter.
The second reason is personal. According to the Oregon Democratic Coordinated Campaign, “targeted” voters (those who are likely to vote Democrat) whose ballots have not been mailed in or picked up could be contacted 18 times between tomorrow and November 2.
You read that right: 18 times. Contacting you may mean phone calls or visits to your door. That’s not counting the times you may be called or visited by other campaigns or by 527s like MoveOn and America Coming Together, which are also launching tremendous get-out-the-vote strategies in Oregon and across the country as you read this.
The third reason points to a higher purpose. As my friend Paddy says, “What if you got hit by a bus before you had a chance to send in your ballot? Wouldn’t you want to die knowing that your vote would count from beyond the grave?”
As they say, every vote counts.
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connect with blueoregon
Oct 14, '04
Amen. And I'll one up ya. We're going to post an "already voted" sign on our door to save canvassers' time.
Oct 14, '04
On the other hand, I have always found pleasure and community connection in treking to the County Elections office minutes before closing time, to hand my ballot over to a blue haired lady volunteering for democracy. The buzz and excitement, unsegregated by political party, is invigorating. You could even end up in one of those lame but inevitable TV news stories covering the last minutes of our collective decision.
7:51 p.m.
Oct 14, '04
On the other hand, I have always found pleasure and community connection in treking to the County Elections office minutes before closing time
Yeah but I'm always afraid that something will happen preventing me from getting to the drop site on time. So, though pushing it, I always vote exactly one day early. lol.
...after verifying that all of my chads have been punched all the way through (I'm in WaCo - we still have chads) and everything that needs to be signed has been signed, of course.
2:49 a.m.
Oct 15, '04
Actually, cc, the chads are gone, gone, gone. No one in Oregon has chads anymore.
4:06 a.m.
Oct 15, '04
I knew you'd correct me if they were gone, K. I'll miss those little guys. lol.
How did I miss that? Because I voted in February... I didn't in May though for reasons that I really don't need to go into here. But anyway..... lol. I guess I just forgot we're now chad-less. I guess that's a good thing because it involved number-matching AND chad-punching. All very complicated.
Oct 16, '04
Ballot completed and delivered within 30 minutes of delivery. Chalk up one vote for Kerry/Edwards.
Oct 16, '04