Working the Line
I've been working the line for early voting here at the Board of Elections here in Cincinnati and the news is all good. Most of what I'm doing is handing out stickers saying: "I voted for Barack Obama". It's pretty obvious from who takes the stickers who's supporting and who's not. My assessment is that probably 95% of the people in line are Barack supporters, of whom I'd say 75% are African American, maybe another 20% are white students, and occasionally some middle aged white people (I have yet to find and African American who was not supporting Barack). Whoever's doing turnout in the African American community here is freaking brilliant.
Some amusing anecdotes. I had an interesting conversation with the guy who was handing out the flyer for the pro-life slate of candidates. Tough day at the office for him, not a particularly friendly crowd. I asked him why his people aren't out early voting (keep in mind Cincinnati is not a particularly liberal place). He didn't know and said, "if this is who votes, you win." We'll see.
Another guy was working at the loading dock next to the outside line. Not exactly in the profile of the Obama supporters in line. He shouted something to me from the other side of the loading dock, which I couldn't hear. I went closer to hear. Turns out he was asking for a sticker. When I gave him the sticker and asked him if he wanted more, he said, "oh, you don't have to worry about me." And then went back to show his co-workers.
In a nutshell, cautiously optimistic so far.
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