Get Out The Mouse

Seeing as we’re close personal friends of Barry and Mitt and Joe and Paul — that is, we’re on the mailing lists for Team Obama and Team Mitt — we’ve received friendly emails with handy links that instruct us where to vote. Let’s click them!

The Team Obama email links to this page, where we enter our address and zip code, and — Voila! — our personal polling location shows up!

Team Mitt, on the other hand, sends us to a generic California page, where we then click the “Find Your Polling Place” link…

…which brings us to the California Secretary of State page, where we scroll down to Sandy Eggo, click that link, and…

…discover this simple form with these simple instructions:

To use this locator you must enter the Street Number, Street Name, Street Type (if it is not blank) and Zip Code of your home address. Once you have entered your address click on the Submit button. If you make a mistake entering your address, re-enter the corrected information or click on the Reset button to reset all information. If your want to skip a field on the form, just press the TAB key or click inside the box you want to add information to.

If the locator is unable to find your polling address, you may need to enter additional information. If your street address has a direction, for example 2111 E 3RD ST, you may need to select the Pre-Directional “E”. Click on the arrow in the Pre-Directional box and click on the correct entry from the list displayed. If your address includes a street type, such as ST, AV, DR, etc., click on the arrow in the Street Type box and click on the correct entry from the list displayed. If your street address has a Post-Directional, for example 425 Camino Del Rio S, click on the arrow in the Post-Directional box and click on the correct entry from the list displayed.

Of course, by the time we’re done reading them, the polls have closed.

13 Comments

I used the Obama page while phone-banking (the polling place is listed on the first page of each packet, but due to the sheer number of volunteers the packets were being split up willy-nilly), and it worked like a charm.

@mellbell: The Obama ground game is severely underrated. It’s not just more butts in more seats in more offices — it’s the contraption that drives everything. Management Consultant Mitt should be ashamed.

@nojo: Does this explain the desperate last-minute press by the Rs? My pre-vote nap was broken by a robocall – from Sarah Palin.

@Beggars Biscuit: I have to presume that whatever they tell the public, campaigns don’t delude themselves internally.

But it is interesting. Republican campaigns always feint towards Pennsylvania at the last minute — and lose — but that typically involves a showy rally to distract the media.

Robocalls? Depends on who’s sponsoring them. That SuperPAC money has to be spent, or the managers don’t get their management fees. Major difference whether Talibunny is sponsored by Team Romney or BillionairePAC.

Am I getting no work done today, or what?

@Beggars Biscuit: On the other hand

All the body language from the Romney campaign suggests that they see Ohio as a long-shot. Instead, it is now Pennsylvania that paves their path to 270.

Ohio is Obama+3, PA is Obama+4. But maybe Team Mitt sees PA as more, um, squishy.

@Dodgerblue: The early flurry of election news seems to have died down a tad. You have two, maybe three hours to make yourself useful.

@Beggars Biscuit: Meanwhile, on the ground

I don’t know any Democrats here that are worried about losing Pennsylvania to Mitt Romney. That’s in large part because—far more than Ohio, with which it is often paired—Pennsylvania has become a state that Democrats think they can win on mobilization alone. Any scenario for Romney to win Pennsylvania has to be predicated on the assumption that Obama will fail to mobilize black voters even at the levels John Kerry did…

Why Pennsylvania? There’s [advertising] inventory available on local stations because the campaigns and outside groups have treated the state as a foregone conclusion for months, and the Senate race turned out to be a dud. So unlike in the other battlegrounds, you can still buy last-minute TV time in Pennsylvania.

So, the SuperPAC explanation with a twist: Team Mitt has to spend the money somewhere, and all the best options are taken.

“Of course, by the time we’re done reading them, the polls have closed.”

You should see the pages and pages of legalese you have to agree to before you can connect to Office Depot’s free WiFi. Try it some time. You’d be in the store way past closing if you stuck around and tried to get through it all.

Tried the link supplied by PlannedParenthood. Sent me here: Vote411.org.
Got my polling place wrong.
Polls have been moved from years old polling place in high school to elementary school down and across the street.

Meanwhile, Team Mitt’s turnout app crashed. There’s a story to be written about the Organization Man’s organization.

Somebody out there is calling for a federal Voting Holiday, which is a nice idea that (a) will never happen, and (b) doesn’t solve the problem of hours-long lines.

If we want to fantasize, how about everybody voting by mail, which Oregon has now done for a generation? The argument that mail ballots disenfranchise po’ folk neglects to compare the price of a stamp with taking a day off work.

My experience: bundled the family up and went up the road to our polling station – which is helpfully shared with another district. Only wait was due to so many people sharing the pan-Slavic surname roots with me. We had agreed that if they asked for photo ID, my better half would oblige, whereas I would politely ask if it was necessary. The kids immediately chose to stick with mom because they hate when I Take A Stand in public.

Sure enough she asked me for photo ID. When I politely etc. etc. she said “nooooo, but you will a year from now”. So I didn’t. Poll Lady was not terribly pleasant, but I got to vote. Our machines weren’t as fancy as those that “flipped” votes so I’m reasonably certain that’s one vote for BarryO.

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