I made the time to make GOTV calls today. Since I am originally from Kentucky, I chose to make calls there to defeat Mitch McConnell. I got to break out the slight Kentucky accent that I usually hide so that was super fun.
I couldn’t believe it, but there were 91 volunteers on my training call!
The trainer let us know that call operations like the one that MoveOn and Daily Kos have put together have been shown to affect elections by an average of 3% points. That is all we need in Kentucky to finally get Mitch out of office, so I was glad to hear this method of calling was so effective.
I was also blown away by the fact that this program has already made 5 million calls this election cycle, in states where we really do only need a percentage point or two to win!
I’m looking forward to hopping back on the phone this evening for the debrief call to see what numbers we got to today.
The training was over and I started making calls. As is so often the case in life, it was a mistake that led to my favorite conversation.
Read below the fold to learn just how important this calls can be.
A Kentucky Democratic voter, 78 year old Christine, misheard me when I said I was a volunteer with MoveOn.org making calls to help defeat Mitch McConell. She thought I was asking her to vote FOR Mitch.
Her voice got much louder as she firmly stated, “I will not vote for Mitch McConnell, absolutely not.”
I clarified that that was what I was hoping she would say, as I was actually calling to encourage folks to vote Democrat. “That’s more like it!” Christine stated. When I asked her what her plan to vote was, she confided that she was “not gettin’ on so well”, and was just “hopin’ to get to the polls tomorrow”.
Well the 3% difference in the polls between Grimes and McConnell that I told her about, made her change her answer. “Alright then, I’ll find a way.”
She was so glad to hear that after voting for the Democratic candidate for the past 30 years, she might finally get to see the day that Mitch is defeated! This would have been the first election she didn’t make it to the polls, but now she will.
In thirty seconds, I gave Christine hope, information and a great reason to vote on November 4th. We thanked each other and hung up. I believe I am not the only one that smiled after the call was over.
Can you make calls today to help ditch Mitch, and give some hope to the folks in Kentucky that have had to deal first hand with his awful policies.