deployment day 1: 500 phone calls

Oh. my. gosh. I am so tired. I don't know about this politics thing. I made 500 phone calls in 11 hours today! We were using registered voter lists from the registrar's office...I don't think they were very accurate. I probably got half wrong numbers/moved addresses as I did live people and correct voicemail boxes. If I were to ever hold a position of influence, I think I would trash the records and require everyone to re-register with proof of residence before each election. I mean, I called a guy who has been dead for 3 years now!! 3 years! Imagine that awkward conversation. "Hi may I speak to so and so?" "uh, that's my dad, and he's been dead for 3 years." "Oh!! I'm so sorry...I uh...uh...thanks for your time!"

I won't get into to many of the details, mostly because I'm totally wiped out right now. The basics are that I called registered voters (rep, dem, ind, everyone) and polled them on who they were supporting. If they were for McCain, I asked them to early vote and gave them more info (except when it got later in the day, then it was all get out the vote on Tues). If they were Obama, I said "thanks for your time, bye!" And if they were undecided, we had a nice little chat :)

Anyway, the long drive down last night...an 11 hour day today. Let's just say I'm SO thankful for daylight savings! I don't know how McCain & Obama teams are doing this for so long. But everyone I met today was pretty nice, it does feel a little awkward being the random girl from Georgia (especially when I asked to turn the GA-FL game on in our phone bank room - we had a nice flatscreen tv - and then GA got their butt kicked. Embarrassing!!). But everyone is so appreciative of the work and I know I made a difference today. Plus the office we're working in is really, really nice. I'll probably take pics tomorrow. I just felt kinda weird being the new girl and taking pictures of everything on my first day...you know?

Ok, tomorrow Rudy Giuliani will be here!

Then Monday, McCain will be here!

It will be worth it I think, just for these 2 events. Because no one ever comes through Georgia...although maybe they should now that Georgia's kind of a toss-up.

AND...here's a little spark of hope for any McCain supporters out there...everyone was talking about this at the office today. McCain now leads Obama in the latest Zogby poll - I was told that this is the same and only poll that predicted a Bush win over Kerry in 2004.