KERRYSPOT - HOW THE GOP GET-OUT-THE-VOTE WORKS [11/02 12:43 PM]
If the GOP’s new and improved Get-Out-The-Vote system works as well as the early reports indicate, and it lives up to all of the hype, I will put it boldface type that I was a fool for ever doubting Ed Gillespie and Karl Rove.
This report from Kerry Spot reader Greg in Roswell, Georgia, gives a sense of just how organized this effort is, and how it might make the difference in tight races:
As for the GOTV effort, I volunteered yesterday for the GA Republican party. I remember reading months back (I think it might have even been on the Kerry Spot) someone was quoted as saying that while the Democrats knew the neighborhoods where there votes were, Karl Rove knew which block they were on. Well, let me tell you, every neighborhood that I went to, I was told which specific house to go to. At least in Georgia, they know where every individual Republican voter is. Here's how organized it was. I went to my County Republican headquarters and signed in. I told them I had about 3 hours, they had a specific set of packets that could be completed in 3 hours. The packet that I was given had detailed maps on which specific streets to go to. I was sent to heavily Democrat Decatur, GA. My list took me to specific houses. I would go down a street that was all Kedwards signs except for 1, and that was the house I had been sent to. They were extremely organized. I have a lot of confidence in the Republican GOTV effort. By the way, I turned every volunteer in the headquarters on to your site.
I know you've been getting lots of turnout updates, but here's three more. First, a little update on the happenings here in Georgia and second, via my brother, in Hillsborough County Florida and third through a friend in Pittsburgh. I live in a heavily Republican Suburb of Atlanta. The polling lines today are twice as long as I have ever seen them for a Presidential election. While this is not going to help with any more Electoral votes from GA, it is a reflection on how organized the GOTV program is and how motivated the Republicans are. I spoke to my brother who lives in a critical area of Florida in the Eastern Suburbs of Tampa in Hillsborough County. He said that turnout was so heavy that he had to leave and go to work. (He'll be back later in the day) His area has experienced significant growth in the past 4 years and that there was an article in Tampa paper about how all the growth in Tampa is in these suburban areas. He said turnout in his heavily Republican neighborhood is much heavier that the last Presidential election. Third, just got off the phone from a friend who lives in Pittsburgh. His district is about 60/40 republican/dark side. He said he normally breezes in early and is number 5 or so and votes in a few minutes. This year, he was #68 and it took 45 minutes.
Now, all of you readers who were e-mailing from the ledge of a skyscraper yesterday should hesitate before you do cartwheels. These accounts are anecdotal — and the Democrats have had an advantage in getting their votes out through unions and African-American churches for a long time.
BIG TURNOUT IN RURAL PA, MI, MN, WI [11/02 12:14 PM]
I don't want to put too much stock into the anecdotal reports I'm getting. I don't want to focus too much on the trees, and not enough on the forest.
Having said those caveats, it sounds like turnout in the rural districts and counties in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota is big. And maybe Wisconsin, too. |
