{"id":11,"date":"2008-11-08T16:25:00","date_gmt":"2008-11-08T21:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/2008\/11\/08\/november-5-12-2008-get-out-the-vote%e2%80%a6-and-wait\/"},"modified":"2015-12-03T15:36:19","modified_gmt":"2015-12-03T20:36:19","slug":"november-5-12-2008-get-out-the-vote-and-wait","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.elca.org\/faithlens\/november-5-12-2008-get-out-the-vote-and-wait\/","title":{"rendered":"November 5-12, 2008 – Get out the vote\u2026 and wait"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Warm-up Question:<\/span><\/strong> What surprised you the most about Tuesday\u2019s election?<\/span><\/p>\n


The final days leading up to the 2008 General Election were filled with a frenzy of phone calls, knocking on doors, and posting signs all over the country. Both the John McCain and Barack Obama campaigns pumped millions of dollars and thousands of volunteers into battleground states in the hopes of picking up a few extra Electoral College votes on November 4. It is estimated that, when the campaigns have concluded, over $1 billion will have been spent on this election — or $8 per voter. (It’s a lot of money, but consider that Americans spent $3 billion on buying potato chips last year.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Democrats called their final wave of contacts a \u201cPersuasion Army,\u201d while Republicans participated in a \u201c72-Hour Program.\u201d The goal was simple: send as many volunteers as possible into the states that are up for grabs, and do everything within your legal rights to convince those people to vote for your candidate. Key states in the day leading up to the election included Indiana, North Carolina, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, and Ohio. President Bush won the electoral votes of each of these states in 2004, but all were declared \u201ctoo close to call\u201d in this election.<\/span><\/p>\n

The struggle for many campaign volunteers was not the long hours they invest, but the inevitable wait on Tuesday night. Some political experts have predicted that the official tally may not be approved until Wednesday morning, or later. The location of voting sites and ballots, in addition to a record number of absentee voters, caused some people to anticipate the possibility of contested results in some states.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI just hope I know who the winner is come Wednesday morning,\u201d said one McCain volunteer. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ll be able to handle waiting several days to know the outcome<\/span>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Discussion Questions<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n