Florida: A two-step process for change

Tod Stiff stands in front of 30 people at a volunteer meeting for the Obama campaign in Miami Springs, a neighbourhood of Miami with a population of 25,000 inhabitants. “Florida is going to decide who the next president of the United States will be,” says Stiff while the room is listening carefully. “Florida voted for Georges W. Bush twice and…”
“Once!” shoots a voice in the public.

Everybody in Florida remembers the 2000 presidential election. Florida was the center of attention when the two presidential candidates, Texas Governor George W. Bush and Senator Al Gore Sr. (D-TN), argued over the counting of the votes. Finally, George W. Bush won with a margin of only a few hundred votes.

It is not only Florida’s history that makes it a decisive swing state, but it is also the fact that it has the third most electoral votes at 27.

This year, the volunteers of the Obama campaign want to make sure that Obama will win Florida and they are working hard for that. “In 2004, I volunteered only two days before the election and it was too late,” says Stiff hoping that people realize the importance of early volunteering. In fact, volunteering is a two-step process. The first step is registering people to vote. The deadline was October 6. The second step is making sure that the voters are going to the voting booth.
During the first step of the process, the Obama volunteers’ goal was to make sure that every voter was registered. To achieve this, many events were organized to encourage voter registration up until the deadline of October 6. One of the largest events was the “Voter Registration Rally” that consisted of a concert where Wyclef Jean and Jay-Z performed. “I am not going to tell you who to vote for,” says Jay-Z a few seconds before performing. “I'm telling you who I'm voting for: Barack Obama!” Before and after the concert, you could see volunteers of the Obama campaign registering voters all around the Miami's Bayfront Park Amphitheatre. Most of the people that they were registering to vote were young people coming from various socioeconomic backgrounds that are not the most wealthy and who they believe are going to vote for Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). Knowing that the election of 2000 was decided by only a few hundred votes, these newly registered voters can have a huge influence on the outcome of the election.
Local events were also organized such as the opening of the Obama campaign office in Liberty City on Friday October 3, 2008. “To give you a figure, yesterday [Sunday October 5] two hundred people came at the office to register,” says Gary Beasley, 33, organizer at the Liberty City office.

Now that the deadline to register to vote has passed, the Obama volunteers want to make sure that the voters who have registered will vote.

“I don’t want to see anyone at the voting booth on November 4,” says Damian Perez, field organizer of the Obama campaign, at the meeting of Miami Springs explaining what he is expecting from the Obama volunteers. “Early votes begin on October 20 and end on November 2. Everybody should vote before November 2.”
To reach this goal, volunteers are going door to door, doing phone banking, updating databases. There will also be volunteers who will provide transportation to voters who would not be able to make it to the polls on their own.
The action the Obama volunteers are taking is essential because the voting process is not as easy as it seems. Even among the strong Obama supporters, only a few have an idea of how it exactly works. “What is the difference between an absentee ballot and an early vote? Where is the nearest voting booth?” questioned the volunteers of Miami Springs.

The key elements of the success of the volunteers’ work are communication and coordination. To make their action more efficient, the volunteers are helped by local Obama offices such as the office in Liberty City. By acting locally, they are going to have a huge impact. “Everybody is self motivated,” says Gary Beasley. “Everybody has its own little campaign running.”
Moreover, the fact that there are local Obama offices offers another advantage. Liberty City’s neighbourhood has been excluded for a long time and the fact that they now have their own Obama office makes people feel important and it motivates them to play a role in the campaign. “Just imagine the buzz in the community,” says John D. Pace Jr. 58 community coordinator at the Liberty City office and former policeman in Liberty City. “We have got an Obama office in our community. Did you go to the Obama office? Did you see it? Where?” whispers Pace imitating people talking about the Obama office in the street. “That is what you want. But imagine if it wasn’t here, then where? You want to be part of this American dream. You keep hearing about the dream, the dream. The dream is a thought. And it is what you want to be. And it can happen. But it won’t happen if there is no presence.”
With the local offices, people feel as if they are at the center of the attention and are therefore more involved in the campaign. “Even if you can volunteer for only one day, it will make the difference,” says Damian Perez hoping that the Miami Springs volunteers, and the volunteers all around Florida understand the message.