Monday, September 15, 2008

Ohio allows voters to register and vote on the same day for one week

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A group called Vote Today Ohio is working to get as many voters registered to their polling places during Ohio's "Golden Week" as possible. This not only gets more voters to the polls but it may also help to reduce the long lines we saw in 2004.

If you live in or near Ohio please consider volunteering.



Who is Vote Today Ohio?
We are a team of organizers who are collaborating with organizations to coordinate the same day registration and early voting program in the battleground state of Ohio.

What are we doing?
Producing votes for Obama in top target areas by taking advantage of Ohio's "Golden Week" -- Sept 30 to Oct 6 -- when new voters can register AND vote on the same day. We'll bring voters from campuses and urban areas to Early Voting Centers, so they can bank their votes early and ensure they don't get shut out by long lines and broken machines on election day

What's our goal?
Turn out more than 10,000 new or unlikely voters, by recruiting a crack team of 100 volunteers from out-of-state and 100 volunteers from Ohio; Building the capacity of youth leadership in Ohio, and other leaders from around the country.

We want to help Obama get elected. Ohio currently has 400,000 resident students. Students are expected to provide overwhelming support for Obama.

What's the timeline?
9/10-9/21: Recruit volunteers, organizers, Team Leaders, and Drivers
9/22-9/28: Publicize the "Golden Week" on campuses and in Ohio's urban centers
9/29: Organizer Training Day in Columbus
9/30-10/6: Golden Week - Register and Turn out 10,000 progressive voters
10/7-11/4: Phase 2: Continued ground work on early voting, persuasion and GOTV

What's this "Golden Week?"
Ohio recently changed its voting laws in a way that creates an extraordinary opportunity for Democrats to win Ohio, and thus win the election. For a 7 day window, from Sept 30 - Oct 6, Ohio residents can register and vote early in all of Ohio's 88 counties. That means we don't need to spend double the time and energy registering folks, and then turning them out to vote a month later. During the Golden Week, it all happens in one fell swoop -- so our energy and money works doubletime.