Action needed today: phonebanking to WA

[Luftmensch067]

Saw this on a list I'm on:

Here's a letter I just got on "Scholars For Obama:"

If you can, please help with Washington phone banking! You can use the phone bank links on the
Obama site, and they are also providing a caucus lookup site for helping people find their
caucus location. http://my.barackobama.com/page/content/wahome
The state democratic party also provides a caucus locator at http://www.wa-democrats.org/
Voters should also be able to locate their caucus by calling their county elections office.
(The Obama site requires name, address, email and phone number before the locator will work!
But it will look up any address, which makes it useful for new voters. The state dem site is
designed for registered voters and requires either last name and zipcode or precinct and
county.)


***********There is a script, but here are some key points and FAQs:
The Caucus is Saturday February 9th at 1:00 p.m. You must participate in the caucus if you
want your vote to count towards selection of delegates. If you can't get anything else across,
get this much out.

Some voters may tell you that they have already mailed, or are planning to mail, their mail-in
ballots (mail-in only elections are now statewide here). This is great! The ballot is still
important--it may contain local or state issues as well as the primary, the number of voters
will be used to determine delegates awarded in 2012, and the count may even influence
superdelegates. BUT IT WILL NOT BE USED TO AWARD DELEGATES AT THE CONVENTION.

The caucus doors open at 1:00.

All registered voters can participate, even if they are Republican or independent. Washington
does not ask voters to state a party affiliation, so there is no such thing as a "registered
Democrat" here. However, they should not vote in the Democratic caucus and then send in a
Republican mail-in ballot. (I don't know if there is actually a process that will check for
this, but besides running the risk of invalidating a vote, it just ain't right.) Everyone who
signs in signs a statement that they consider themselves a Democrat, but this does not have
any official "registration" action and they are free to consider themselves anything they like
as soon as they leave the caucus.

Anyone who will be 18 by November 4, 2008 can vote.

***Voters can register for the first time, or change their registration if they have moved,
right at the caucus location.

Have fun, and help us to GET OUT THE CAUCUS!