Obama to Florida: We'll Make Sure Your Vote Will Count

A team of military veterans, state and local government officials, Barack Obama and, less than twenty-four hours after winning game #7 of the American League Championship, members of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team have a singular message for Floridians--the election starts now.

Attendees at a Tampa rally yesterday were asked by no fewer than ten different speakers to cast their votes as soon as possible. Listing a host of reasons that voting early is more convenient and citing the events of the 2000 election, voters were asked to cast their votes now to ensure that any problems that may arise would have time to be fixed.

The procedures for casting a vote, including which forms of ID are valid and an attempt to "squash" early voting myths, were painstakingly outlined for the attentive crowd of nearly 10,000 at Legends Field.

Obama used a more populist tone for his pitch for early voting: "What if your car breaks down on Election Day? What if your alarm doesn't go off or you have to work late? Don't wait. Go early."

He then unveiled what he dubbed a historic effort to protect the votes of Americans. Raising a blue hat for the crowd to see, Obama revealed that there would be volunteers on hand at every polling location every day in case something goes wrong. Should someone experience difficulty casting their vote they would need only to flag down a person wearing a blue hat and help would be on the way. A toll-free number, 877.2FLOBAMA, will also be available for people to call for help. "We'll make sure your vote is counted."

Senator Bill Nelson (FL) explained the focus on Florida by the campaign: "Tampa and Orlando are on the I-4 Corridor, a swing area of the state. As the I-4 Corridor goes, so goes Florida. As Florida goes, so goes the nation. A great responsibility rests on the shoulders here."

He then proceeded to outline three specific examples to illustrate why he feels that Floridians must vote for Obama - to protect social security, to establish a National Catastrophic Fund that would protect the state when a hurricane strikes and to advance the space program that "has been savaged by Bush". Asked about his confidence about the GOTV effort and the campaign in general, Nelson responded: "There shouldn't be nearly as many hitches this time around. You're going to see record numbers of voters, particularly students and newly registered voters. It would be very difficult for McCain to put together now what we have already built on the ground."

Obama had more pointed remarks about what to expect in the final two weeks: "Change never comes without a fight. Expect to see the same say anything, do anything politics by the McCain campaign. But I believe in this country. I believe in the American people."

Attendees were seen asking volunteers about early voting locations as they exited the stadium, some even carpooling to the polls directly from the event. One woman explained why she will cast her vote early: "I wasn't really planning on voting early, but it seems like a great idea. If they find it this important to have him come and tell us about it then I'll do it."

With machines already malfunctioning in both Jacksonville and parts of West Virginia it appears that the men and women in the blue hats may have their work cut out for them over the next thirteen days.

Follow Shawna Vercher on Twitter: www.twitter.com/shawnavercher

Comments

[terrra]

make sure your vote will count in other states. below is a concise guide on early voting and what to do if you have a problem at the polls, including whom to talk to and where to report it:

http://wholesum.org/blog/2008/10/10-tips-to-make-sure-your-vote-will-count/

[leshanne]

i think what the country would benefit from is a practical, systematic election set up, not all the confusions from one polling station to another. and as i've read from some previous commenters in HuffPo, there should always be at least 3 person overseeing the set up at each station - a democrat, a republican and an independent.

[Oregon Ivy]

After this election, everyone in every state needs to petition their new Democratic Senators to reform the voting system in America to a paper ballot. We do mail-ins here in Oregon and it's nice to be able to read over each proposal and take your time to decide, and it's about as close to tamper-free as you can get.

[newpotusplease]

Floridians,

If you want the rest of the country to stop calling you "Floridiots" or "Florid-duh"-- then take back your voting rights and demand a better voting process, copy one from another state that works -- don't need to reinvent the wheel but you do need to get your act together.

[1PALady]

Senator O, I sure hope you're lawyered up! Please do not let them outsmart us. Hopefully, we will not need lawyers, but let's not take any chances. I'm sick of Rethugs being the only ones that know how to play the game. Let's beat them at their game this time if we have to!

[cherlybear]

Thank you so much to all those Obama volunteers out there!

Make sure you check that you voted for the correct person (and use a paper ballot if possible) because there have been many reports that Obama/Biden votes are instantly changing to McCain/Palin votes right before the voters' eyes. This cannot be accepted.

[ajaye]

I'm part of the blue hatted team. Other than technical problems and long lines, I have confidence in this county's system. Although it takes a longer time, it seems to combine the best of both worlds: Technology to count the votes, but paper ballots to document the vote in case of challenge.

You mark the bubble next to your candidates, when finished put the ballot through the scanner. The machine tells you what you are voting for, if you agree, you press yes. If you made a mistake you can get up to two more ballots.

It does take a long time. The line today at my polling place was 3 hours wait. Agree that a uniform nationallized system would help.

[Hopefulinfl]

I too am part of that team and voted today. What concerned me about today's vote was that although there is a paper trail, I was unable to verify that the scanner read my paper ballot correctly. There is no way for the voter to ensure that his vote actually was read correctly correctly by the scanner. I asked.
I certainly hope not but this system could be an issue.

[BassMent]

I'm more concerned about voter intimidation AWAY from the polls than shenanigans at the polls (although I fully expect a huge number of Dems will show up and find that they are no longer registered­... good reason to go early).

I remember stories in 2000 of state troopers setting up road blocks on outlying roads leading to polling places, to check for "drunk drivers" or "vehicle inspection stickers" or whatever. Basically to chase away voters of color. Creepy, and more than a little disgusting. Hope voters who encounter this sort of thing are brave enough to phone it in.

[barackobama4prez]

Sarah Palin doesn't even realize Obama and Clinton are getting the early vote out by simply imploring voters to do so. Ever since early voting began the dems make the push and GOP doesn't.

GO DEMS 08

[CubanPete]

NOW he is going to make sure Floridas vote counts? How Convienient! Good thing I'm a Florida voter who is voting for McCain unless of course Acorn already stole my information.

[Fugaziaol]

You can line up behind the people who signed a victim's rights petition and ended up having their party affiliation changed to Republican.

[biglith]

If you're referring to the Dem primary I have a feeling you never cared.

[ilovemycat]

No, the democrats are finally going to get the votes they deserve rather than stealing our votes like you've done for the past 2 elections!!

[ThinkCreeps]

Pete - your attitude to democracy suggests Cuba would like you back.

[AnneHope]

HA! that made my day...

[AnneHope]

You obviously don't watch the news or read. The ACORN thing is an established lie to distract from the issues. Vote for McCain, but know that you are following someone who wants to "win no matter the cost" rather than make great choices for this amazing country we live in.

I hope you can see through this mess one day and realize what McCain, Palin and the GOP are doing is damaging this country to the core. Divided we fail.

[Two Three Four]

October 21 Poll Update
http://voteforamerica.net/editorials/Comments.aspx?ArticleId=115&ArticleName=Poll+Update

[UKlondongal]

I just don't understand this. Why isn't the US voting system standardised so its the same in every county and state? Some things are too important!. In Britain there are no electronic machines - every vote is a paper one. They are all counted by hand. There are no queues and polling stations are open from 7am to 9pm. It took me 2 minutes to vote in the last local elections and anyone can request an absentee ballot if they dion't want to go in person.

[ilovemycat]

Probably because the republicans have run the system for so long now, why would they want to change the way they do business. They've perfected "how to steal votes"

[sparkal]

i ahve been wondering this since I was old enough to vote...It is not rocket science!

[HHarvey]

Listened to Stephanie Miller this morning and Obama's attorney Chuck (can't remember last name) was on and saying they had something like 5,000 lawyers hanging out all over voter precints in Florida. He said the campaign is taking election fraud very seriously in this state because of what happened to Floridians before. He stated if police cars showed up and parked the lawyers would have something to say about it. He believes voter intimidation will be more prevelant than election fraud there this year.

[arthur2008]

Fortunately, Michael Mukasey will be leaving government "service" right after he wraps up his work on the McCain campaign. Then the Justice Department can prosecute these civil rights violations.

[RobinL]

Yes, Obama's team has HUNDREDS (their words, not mine) of lawyers on the ground this election. Thank God!! It's about time we had an election that the Democratic candidate fights for!

[jja]

My father voted today in Palm Beach county and reported that there were lawyers for both campaigns present at the polling place.

[SENATORCALLENBOWE]

I FEEL...ALI­VE AGAIN :)

[mayday08]

I've already voted early and made sure that I had proof. I took a picture of my vote. Let them try to steal that! They will try to stoop as low as they can, but I hope we won't let them get away with stealing it this year. There is too much at stake!

Obama/Biden '08