Here and there we hear about the GOP's chances in New York on the upswing though in reality there is no question about which way our electoral votes are going to be cast this year, as they were for the last twenty years. Barack Obama is going to win here and win big but that does not mean New Yorkers can just sit back and be complacent about things. In the most solid and active Democratic enclave in the city, things are heating up and people are turning out to make sure Obama is elected President in less than two months time.
From The NY Observer:
“You would think this being the Upper West Side, this being a bastion of progressive and reformer politics, that everyone would be energized and ready to go,” said Tim Foley, a former Obama new media director for New Hampshire and New York who now works for the SEIU and organizes many Obama events on the Upper West Side. “But it’s human nature to put things off. So just the sheer number of people who just possibly wouldn’t have been registered in time if we hadn’t been out on the streets is amazing to me.”
Foley was registering voters at 110th Street and Broadway on Labor Day Monday, along with two local Democratic groups. It was the third day of tabling over the long weekend; four additional events were scheduled for the remainder of the week.
On Monday, Steve Max, a longtime member of Three Parks Independent Democrats who has lived in the neighborhood for most of his 78 years, had stationed himself at 105th Street, in front of a temporary phone banking station being painted by a bevy of young volunteers. Max called the weekend’s crop of voter registration forms, which he estimated at several hundred, “totally, totally remarkable.” The registrations came from a mix of people, he said, though young people and African-Americans were heavily represented.
There are events happening all over the five buroughs but things are heavily concentrated between Riverside and Central Park(s). Not only are people doing the standard Get-Out-The-Vote operation but expanding beyond by getting on buses to canvass in Pennsylvania and writing personalized letters to swing voters as far away as Florida and Ohio.
Of course this doesn't mean that if you don't live in the area that you yourself can't get involved. Simply go to my.barackobama.com and sign up, then see what events are going on in your neighborhood. If there isn't much nearby, then create an event yourself. Whether it is a bakesale, tabling on your corner with Obama buttons and voter registration forms or getting together in someone's home to talk about the election, getting connected is essential so that we turn out as many voters as possible on November 4th.
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