deployment: yay!

And the volunteer deployment has a happy ending.

Tipped off by one of my Floridian aunts...McCain beat Obama by 5% on election day in Florida. So, it looks like my 4 days of work & the countless hours put in by fellow deployees (is that a word?) made a serious impact! :) hip hip hooray!

But as we know, Obama won Florida, and he did it by outdoing McCain 11% in early & absentee voting.

Which brings me to wonder: were there any early/absentee Obama voters who wanted to change their minds on election day? Or, how many of these early/absentee voters were Acorn related? Just throwing it out there, even though it doesn't really matter at this point.

deployment day 4: rollercoaster ride

So my last day volunteering on the McCain/Palin campaign started off with...you guessed it. Phone calls. I made phone calls all day as that was still top priority. Unfortunately I probably had the least success that day with phone calls. I did have one really good call: "are you voting for McCain?" "you betcha! (with Palin accent)" In total for 4 days, I made over 1600 calls.

Emotions were high throughout the day. Their was a frantic air in the room as we feverishly stormed through pages and pages of voter sheets. The bank was really full all day, and I was always encouraged to see new faces who stopped by to make phone calls after they voted for McCain. After phoning for 8 hours, I switched it up to sign duty. I figured the phone calls weren't going to make much of a difference with only a couple hours left at the polls. Maybe by waving signs I could get someone to vote for McCain while they drove to the polls.

Check out this cute baby holding a McCain sign with the help of the mom:


Our little island:


I made another friend and I was digging her pom pom headband:


Once the polls closed, we headed inside to make more phone calls, this time to the Florida panhandle, since their polls were still open. I got a lot more response there for McCain, which was encouraging. And then the moment we had all been waiting for..."WE'RE DONE!!!!" No more phone calls. We thought we were going to make calls out to Colorado and Nevada, but they got assigned to other HQs. So that was it. Done. Finished. Cheers all over and then the pizza & beer all around. Haha. It was a great time of celebration in the collective effort we had put forth. I certainly felt accomplished!

And then...we watched the various news outlets as they started calling states for each candidate. We also had a fair share of "insider" types who knew the real numbers and would update us before the news did. We would cheer for McCain, we would shake our heads in disappointment, we would stare at the TV in shock, we would look to each other in comfort, we would speak out in strength that there was still hope...feeling all kinds of different emotions and always hoping for the best. It was great being in the company of all my fellow volunteers and sharing election night with them. Although I do have to say that I greatly missed Ryan & Raegan and wished I could be at the big party in ATL with them. Although the room cheered for Saxby, it just wasn't the same as being back in the Peach state with my favorite Republicans.

I can't remember what time it was, but once Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Iowa went for Obama, one of the insider guys closed his laptop and said "it's over." The room quieted down and people started to leave. I figured it was time to make my exit as well. I had brought clothes for the victory party over in St. Pete...but I just had no heart to go over there.

And so that was my last day on the McCain/Palin campaign. It was a wild ride.

election night

I'll have a more in detail post tomorrow about my last day volunteering on the McCain/Palin campaign here in Tampa & Hillsborough County. It truly was an amazing, rewarding, hard, fun, crazy, emotional time. A lot to process. I'm so thankful for the opportunity. I just don't have the heart do it right now! :(

I just wanted to do a quick post on how much my heart aches for America right now. I feel like this is not my country any more. Or it's not the country my founding fathers revolted to create. I look ahead to the next 4 years with so much fear and uncertainty. Although I almost hope that Obama does so badly that it would wake this country up and turn us back to our roots. Is that bad?

No one has called Florida yet, and I have seen Hillsborough turn red, then blue. I hope it turns back to red. I really have a good feeling that McCain can carry it. If he can at least do that, that would make my time here all the more amazing.

election day

An email from John McCain:

My Friend,

From the time I entered the Naval Academy at age seventeen I have been privileged and honored to serve my country.

Throughout my years of service, I've been faced with challenges where I could have taken the easy way out and given up. But I'm an American and I never give up. Instead, I choose to show courage and stand up and fight for the country I love. Today, I am asking you to stand with me and to fight for our country's future.

Our country faces enormous challenges and our next president must be ready to lead on day one. My lifetime of experience has prepared me to lead our great nation. I'm prepared to bring solutions to our economic challenges, bring our troops home in victory and improve our nation's healthcare system.

Time and time again, my country has saved my life and I owe her more than she has ever owed me. I have chosen to show my gratitude through a life of service to our country and tomorrow, you will have a choice before you.

I humbly ask you to make the choice that will allow me to serve my country a little while longer by casting your vote to elect me as your next President of the United States.

Finally, I ask that you never forget that much has been sacrificed to protect our right to vote. We must never forget those Americans who, with their courage, with their sacrifice, and with their lives, have protected our freedom. It is my great hope that you will exercise your right to vote as an American tomorrow.

I thank you for your kind support, your dedication to our cause, and most importantly I thank you for your vote.

With sincere appreciation,

John McCain

vote early!

I voted early today! You should too. It was pretty crowded and I got there right when they opened at 8:30. I wasn't planning on voting early, but I had to go down and straighten out my registration (transferring it from another county, long story). And then they were like, "do you want to vote today?" And I said, "uh, SURE!"

So do it if you can. If all the rumors in the air are true, election day is going to be looooooooooong lines everywhere.

And as if it were any question...I voted McCain-Palin. :) It feels so good to say that!