Vote For Change: Continuing the Work

May 15, 2008

Last weekend we launched our national voter registration drive, Vote For Change, with over 100 official events across the country. The response was tremendous, but it was just the beginning. The heart of the Vote For Change program, and the key to its success, is the grassroots supporters across the country who are willing to take the tools we’ve provided and continue the work in their own communities. And just one week in, that’s exactly what’s happening.

This Saturday, Lisa and Rick are organizing a voter registration table at the Hercules Farmers’ Market in Hercules, California. As Lisa explained:

I was a part of the kick off event last weekend. It was so exciting to be a part of registering people to vote and to know we were already working on winning in November. I told the organizer of it that I was determined to bring the campaign to my town (the events I’ve attended so far are two towns removed from me).

This is the first event that I’ve organized and posted on my.barackobama.com.

Saturday we will be setting up a table at our local Farmers’ Market. We’re thinking of trying out different venues in the future around our town and then deciding which is the most effective. What is really exciting is that we’ve had a positive response for Saturday’s event from our posting of it. The two of us feel like we’re assembling a team to work on the campaign in our town, where we think there are many people we could reach who aren’t registered or know Barack very well yet.

At the same time, on the other side of the country, Aaron is organizing in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, at a Chicken BBQ event that’s expected to draw thousands of people throughout the day. Aaron has been helping build support in Lancaster County for months now:

Starting in early February I jumped on board with Barack Obama as a volunteer. I quit my job and started organizing local groups that met separately. By the time the Barack Obama organizers hit the ground we had over 250 volunteers … Myself, Nate and Leah built upon this volunteer group using the tools provided by the campaign. After the PA campaign was finished we had well over 1277 volunteers who changed the face of Lancaster County for Obama. We were suppose to lose Lancaster County by 6 points … We won by over 10 points.

There are dozens of grassroots events like these taking place across the country this weekend, and there will be many more in the weeks and months to come. You can search for an event your own community, or sign up and create your own.

Whether you’re an experienced organizer like Aaron, or a first time event host like Lisa, you can connect with people in your own community and help build a true grassroots political machine, one new voter at a time.

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