Thanks for registering folk in Philly. That is TRUE “Battleground State” activism. Kudos.

Thanks for registering folk in Philly. That is TRUE “Battleground State” activism. Kudos.

Great tips, Nick. Just a one more: on the back of your clipboard, put in big letters “REGISTER TO VOTE”. People will see that and come up to you, and people will be more open than if they think you're trying to sell something or ask for donations. I did a few weekends in Philly this spring, in front of supermarkets — there were whole crews that came down from Queens and Long Island, it was an amazing experience!

But I'm telling you… there is simply nothing EASIER or more satisfying than registering voters. I spent about 2 hours by my local grocery store and directly registered or handed registration cards to about 25 people.

All you have to do is call your local county election board, which is very easy to do if your Google your county's name + “election board.” Call them and they will send you 20-25 voter registration cards. I got mine in a day.

You don't need permission from anyone to register voters. By LAW, you can stand outside of ANY business and register voters. If you plan to stand on private property, then you'll need permission, so bear in mind that most parking lots are private property. BUT THAT'S IT.

Make sure you have a couple clip boards. Make sure you have pens. If you have a large Hispanic population where you are like I do, then download and print out some copies of your state's voter registration forms en espanol. For those, you might want to bring a few blank envelopes pre-addressed with your county's board of elections.

Ms. Wars is absolutely right… you can never tell who's registered and who's not. About a third of the folk I gave cards to were people who had moved to the area since the last general election and had never gotten around to re-registering. These were typically men and women in their 40's or 50's.

All you're really doing is giving the people who truly WANT to vote the opportunity to register — only they've literally been waiting for YOU to provide the opportunity. Some of these people had YEARS to re-register themselves after moving, but never got around to it. But there you are, and the excuses are over.

Best moment… a White woman about 50 or so asked for two voter registration cards. She told me that she and her husband were both admittedly “non-voters.” But they had been talking to each other about voting for the first time in a VERY LONG TIME… and entirely because the liked OBAMA so much. There I was. She didn't have any excuses anymore.

I'm definitely calling for some more cards in the morning.

Talk about getting involved.

“The WARS were/was ON!!” [Sorry for the subject-verb not-quite complement! :>)]

Obama-Biden '08!!