Get out the Vote

Here is how entry to political events in New Hampshire works:   

You are greeted at a table by 2 or 3 nice looking college age people, who welcome you and hand you a clipboard.   You put in your name and email address in the signup grid.   They give you a sticker or ask if you want to wear a campaign logo tee shirt, which are conveniently on sale right there.

If the event is for Hillary there is then the Secret Service screen, basically like the TSA screen prior to boarding a plane, except they look much more carefully at your computer stuff.   They turn on my I pad to be sure it operates.   They question why I have both a large phone AND an I-pad.  I tell them the I-pad is for recording the event, the phone for photographs.  That answer seems to suffice.)

Nevada Trump event:  waiting in line at the bottleneck: the sign in table.

I would put down my email address then go in and get a seat up front, because I generally arrive way early.

Now I am paying the price for giving a correct email address in the form of a busy in-box.    I got maybe 20 emails each day in the week prior to the Iowa caucus from the various candidates and I am getting about that many a day again.   The fundraising emails look like this.  This one comes to "Peter" and is signed by "Ted".   Ted and I shook hands in South Carolina, so I guess we are pals.   If you cannot count on your pals to help your campaign, who can you count on?

The money solicitations have a low dollar suggestion and absolute urgency.  

There is a dollar checkoff that allows me to put in $3 or $12 or some other low amount, and then much larger amounts.

Ted's is just an example.  Others do the same thing.  Apparently it is the formula that works.   "We need $5 right now!!!"

Here, on the right, is a similar appeal in today's in-box from a Democratic Party fundraising consolidator.   They are all set up to get credit card contributions, starting with $5 a month.

Get there early, chat with the signup people, sit up front

I paid attention to the sign-up procedures at events because I wanted to see how it was done.  They really wanted my email address, phone and zip code.   The young people didn't seem to care that I put down 97504, a West Coast zip. They were trained to care about getting my telephone and email.   I foolishly gave them my actual home landline number.

Debra and I get about 3 phone calls a day from Democrats soliciting money, using the  landline phone number.   Emily's list, the DNC, the Senate Leadership PAC, and so on and on.  It has become annoying.  I tell these callers, who have the most miserable job in the world, that we give every time Wyden, or Merkley or some other elected official or candidate calls personally, but only then.  Sorry.   We give often, which is why we are on the lists.

Meanwhile, there is an election, and today it is all about getting out the vote in New Hampshire.   Today, February 9, is election day in New Hampshire.

Today the campaigns are reminding me to vote.   Here is what my mailbox is filling up with:

I have had two emails like this one from Hillary so far today, as of 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time.

This time tomorrow we will have some insights on the potential future course of our country. New Hampshire will vote.   Rubio will either be a hero with momentum or a flame out (or both, depending on who is saying it and the direction of their spin.)   Kasich and Bush will either be vindicated in their mood and policies or shown to be hopelessly out of sync (or both, depending on the spin).  Trump will be a voter juggernaut or a showman without votes (depending on the spin.) And so on.

Heads up:   there are two elections happening today.   The election with votes and then the election of the interpreters.   One tallies votes; the other interprets campaign momentum and by predicting the future it shapes the future.