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News of tightening PA race brings out last-minute volunteers
The Web site for the award-winning alternative weekly, the Philadelphia City Paper.
News of tightening PA race brings out last-minute volunteers
Seth Lyons, 25, hadn't canvassed or volunteered for the Obama campaign before today. "But because it got so close in Pennsylvania, I thought I should do something on my day off." He was one of dozens to show up at the Obama office on South Street today, to help get out the vote.
Curtis Kise, a volunteer organizer at the campaign office, was training the last-minute volunteers. He told them the turnout push was critical. "For the most part, these are weak voters [we're contacting today]. They probably didn't vote in the mid-term elections in 2010. So that's why we're shaking the trees right now and trying to get them to fall out."
Still, door-knocking mid-day can be a thankless task, as canvasser Laura Smith, 25, learned. Most residents she was seeking out along the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Spruce Street either weren't home or already voted. But, she said, "I'm too nervous to sit at home anyway. And I think we can go Democrat if everyone votes. I don't see it as having to convince people to vote for Obama, so much as convincing them to leave their houses." She was leaving stickers on doorknobs, and figured even that reminder could be enough to send a resident to the polls.
Along the way, Smith crossed paths with Joe Batastini, a member of Temple College Republicans who has been volunteering for the Romney campaign for about a month. He was optimistic. "It's a dead heat in Pennsylvania so we're trying to get as many votes as we can. And it's not just Republicans: There's a lot of independents and Democrats that are switching over as well." Batastini said he voted in the morning at Temple and saw no line, but heard that there was an hour-long wait by around noon. He'll be volunteering all day long. "I even walked someone to her polling place at 18th and Lombard. She wasn't sure how to get there. And every vote counts."
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