Election Eve Story.

Ok, ok, ok.  

By this time tomorrow, the polls will be closed in PA, and I'll be on the phone to voters in Colorado, or embroiled in some legal thing, keeping the polls open late here, or singing and dancing to entertain people who are waiting in line, or lying in a ball on the floor. PA is really heating up, and we're all anxious about what might happen tomorrow at the polls.  Will we run out of ballots?  Will the police kick us out of our offices? Will all the voting machines break? Will it rain?

So, before any of that starts happening, here's what you've been asking for. 

Here’s the story of what happened at the rally.

So, on Monday night. I stayed up late and thought about what I was going to say. I recorded it onto a little tape recorder, and figured I could listen to it a bunch of times so I could remember the important parts, and improvise the rest. I’m a quick study, and I’ve been using the same pitch to get volunteers here for the last month, and it’s worked ok. Which is, I guess, why they asked me to do this.

So, I went to sleep. And then woke up at 4 in the morning. Because I needed to leave the house at 5, and I needed to look nice.

So, I put on my black and white dress, and my blue coat, and my boots, and my favorite Obama pin, and fixed my hair in a way that said “I’m working hard and just threw my hair back, and look how perfectly it falls! You know why? Because of Barack Obama, that’s why.”

And I got in the car and drove the 10 minutes to Chester.

It was freezing outside. I thought it was just that early morning cold. It was still dark out, and drizzling a little.

When I got to the site, I parked the car. At 5:30, there were already about 1,000 people in line.
So, for those of you who don’t know, Chester is a predominantly African American city of about 40,000. About 30% of the city lives below the poverty line. There are a lot of Barack Obama supporters there, and all the schools were cancelled for the day in the district, so the students could come.

So people were excited.

I took some pictures in the early morning, but they all turned out terrible, because it was dark.
So, basically, we stood around in the dark, cold, rain for a while, organizing volunteers, while the advance team set up the security. At one point I was dispatched to pull people out of line and give them pink bracelets – these people were being selected to stand behind Barack when he spoke. People caught on to what I was up to pretty quick, and I only narrowly escaped a stampede of grandmothers.

So, about this time, I met the woman who I would be “co-pitching” with.

Yes, the night before, they told me that I would be co-pitching with a field organizer from another office, who has an amazing personal story, is very energetic and outgoing and awesome. So, I thought, great! Fine! No problem. We talked a little about who would say what part, and agreed to practice in the morning.

Now, by this time, I was pretty much soaked through. I had nothing on that could be considered waterproof or warm. I was wearing a dress, and my legs were bare. Soon, I put on a plastic poncho that someone handed me that was pretty much a very, very flimsy trash bag. Like the kind that comes in the trash can in the hotel bathroom.

And it was raining harder and harder, and I had no gloves, and no hat, and the wind kept blowing my plastic poncho off and my “staff” tag was soaked through and was disintegrating, and I couldn’t feel my fingers anymore.

So, I asked my boss if I could go sit in her car for a few minutes. She said ok. So, I sat in the car, and listened to my speech on my little tape recorder, and was visited in the car by other staff members who needed to thaw.

We were collecting volunteer sign-ups at the rally, and were hoping to get a large number of people to sign up to volunteer for Obama while they were standing in line, but having people write on pieces of paper proved to be difficult. Plus, everyone was pretty miserable in the cold windy rain.

So, I sat in the car, and then I went to my co-speaker’s car, and we practiced a little bit, and then we got a call that we had to get inside the gates! Right away!

So, we went towards the gates, and through security, and ran towards the stage, and met my boss, who said “Are you ready?”

Uh, ok.

So, we went into this little hallway, and there were some official looking people bustling around, and then before you know it, they made me take off my plastic poncho (good choice) and we were out behind the place where the little stage was, with the secret service and the police, and then Congressman Bob Brady got up and introduced me and my co-speaker, and then we ran up to the little stage.

It was really little! Like, 10 x 12. And there was a podium and a mike. You couldn’t really see the crowd, because of the way it was placed, and also because there were big, giant lights pointed at my face.

And here’s what I said. Basically.

Hello Delaware County!
(crowd cheers)

Is everybody fired up and ready to go?
(crowd shouts, "Yes!"

Lemme hear it then! Are you fired up? 

(Fired up!) 

Ready to go? 

(Ready to go!)

Oh yeah? Are you ready to see Barack Obama?
(Big cheer)

Are you ready to elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States?
(Really big cheer)

My name is Elizabeth Audley – I grew up here in Delaware County, and I am so happy to see all of you here! I’ve never been so proud to be from Delaware County. I’ve never been so proud to be from Pennsylvania. And I’ve never been so proud to be an American as I am today.

I started as a volunteer with the campaign just 6 weeks ago.

When they called me up again, and asked me if I would come to Pennsylvania, I said yes. I said yes, yes I can. I put everything on hold, and I came back to my hometown to work for my candidate, and to do everything I could to make sure Barack Obama was elected president. And I’ve been working full time ever since. And it’s the best, and the most important, and most inspiring thing I’ve ever done in my life.

(Then my co-speaker gave a pitch about Voter Protection, and the rules about voting)

(Then the crowd got restless. And people started shouting, “We can’t hear you!” So I said, “You can’t hear us?” And all the people to my right said “No!” So I said “Can we turn the mikes up?” And nothing happened. And then I said “How about now? Can you hear me now?” And they said “No!” And I said, “uhhh. Can we turn the mikes up some more?” And the event staff scurried around and no one said anything. So, my co-speaker and I sort of looked at each other and started shouting “Yes We Can!” and “Fired Up! Ready to Go!” until it was obvious that we were just vamping for time, and so I continued…)

Listen up everyone – here’s the thing. In one week, I know that everyone here is going to go out and elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States. Am I right?
(crowd cheers)

But, listen up -- here’s the other thing. If we’re going to win this, we need more than your vote. We need your help. There’s one thing left to do. We have to get out the vote.

In this last week, we need you to get out there and tell all those people who want to vote for Senator Obama where their polling place is, and what time the polls open, and what to bring with them, and what their rights are. And we need you to tell people how important it is that they vote. We need you to tell people that if the lines are long, that means that it’s working! You need to remind them that the whole country is watching us here, in Pennsylvania. The country is counting on us to get to the polls, and win Pennsylvania, and win this election and take back this country. We need to knock on every single Obama supporters door in those four days, and we can’t do it without your help.

Many of you have volunteered before, and many of you have been volunteering for a long time. This campaign would not be here today if it were not for people like you – and you are the people who convinced me to join this campaign. There are thousands and thousands of volunteers have been working for almost 2 years in 48 states to put Barack Obama in office. All across the country, people are giving everything they’ve got to make sure that Barack Obama is the next president of the United State. And I don’t want to let them down. They are depending on us in Pennsylvania. They are depending on us get out there, and turn out the vote, and win the election for Barack Obama. We cannot let them down.

So, let me ask you: how much do you want this? Ask yourself, honestly, are you really doing everything you can do to make sure this happens? I know, I know, it’s hard to find the time. You’re busy, you have commitments, and families, and jobs. But all we are asking for is one afternoon, or one morning, and we will give you four years of Barack Obama. I think that’s a pretty good deal. Find the time. Dig a little deeper.

Also, this is it, you guys. This is your shot. This is your chance to be a part of history. You have the opportunity to be a part of something that will change the world. You can tell your children, and your grandchildren, not just that you were there, but that you were the one who did it. You were the one who changed the world. This is the opportunity that you have in front of you – do not pass it up.

And I am telling you, you will never feel as good as you will on November 5th, when you wake up, and Barack Obama is elected president of the United States, and you know that it’s because of you.

And then it was over. I would like to say that the crowd went wild with cheering, but most of them were still just pissed off that it was raining, and worried that the sound system didn’t work, and that they wouldn’t be able to hear Barack when he came.

And I left the stage, and stood in the rain some more. I shared an umbrella with the President of Widener University.

(“Hello, I’m the President of Widener University. Would you like to stand under my umbrella?” “Oh, yes, that would be nice. I guess they let you have an umbrella because you're in charge of this place, huh.” “Yeah. So, what do you do?” “I work for the Obama campaign. I’m also an actress.” “That’s great!” “Yeah.” “So, you like Barack Obama, too?” “Yup. I do.”)

There was a slow and steady unraveling of vanity all around me. People just wearing plastic bags. On their heads. And on their feet.

I listened to Barack speak (the sound system was, indeed, broken and you could not hear if you were up close and to the side), and mostly watched the crowd watch him. It was interesting to see people watching him up close. It was interesting that more people were taking pictures than actually listening – they didn’t need to hear what he was saying. They’d heard it all before – this was about being close to him.

And it got me wondering about the point of political rallies. Do people come to them who haven’t made up their minds? I don’t think they do. Is it something that the candidate has to do to prove that he’s of the people? Because I would prefer it that Barack Obama not stand out in the freezing rain for even a half hour. It’s important to me that he not catch pneumonia.

Now, I have to say, that it was kind of badass that while Barack spoke in the freezing rain, McCain cancelled his PA appearances for the day, due to weather. And it was nice to see all of these people come out, despite everything. But I don’t think we got any new votes out of it, and I don’t know how many volunteer shifts we got out of it, because many of the pieces of paper dissolved in the rain, or were illegible.

So, what’s the point of the candidate tearing around the country to make in person appearances? What’s the point of putting the whole staff outside in the rain for 6 hours, one week before the election, during the most difficult punishing week of the campaign? There are a lot of things that we do, and the reason that we do them the way that we do them is because that’s the way it’s done.  We're working like crazy this week, and I don't know if it has to be this way for us to win, or if it has to be this way so that we feel like we are working as hard as we possibly can.  I just don't know. 

To me, it seems like a test. Like, you have to do this incredibly hard, physically exhausting thing – you have to, literally, run this race. And whoever wins the race, wins the race. Maybe?

Don't know.  But I can't wait to be across the finish line. 

(Postscript: When I was checking volunteers in yesterday, someone recognized me from the rally. He said, “That was a great speech! It got me all fired up.” Alas, no photos or video of me speaking have surfaced. If they do, I’ll let you know. Promise.)