With the presidential election likely to be decided in a handful of closely contested states, thousands of Americans are now practicing democracy-to-go, leaving home for days, weeks and even months to try to sway votes in the few battlegrounds where they feel they still can make a difference.
There is Bernard von Bothmer, 38, a doctoral history student in Indiana, a state solidly in President Bush's corner, who drives several hours most weekends into up-for-grabs Ohio, where he passes out John F. Kerry bumper stickers on the theory that "a Kerry sticker would have more effect on a car in Ohio than in a state that is voting for Bush."
There is Derek Combs, 36, a Federal Bureau of Prisons employee in Kentucky (Bush country), who has volunteered to fly to New Hampshire (leaning weakly to Kerry) to try to grab that state's four electoral votes for the president.
There are Sam and Gretchen Feldman, retirees in their seventies in Massachusetts (Kerry country), who are flying to hotly contested Florida to work through Election Day for Kerry because, said Sam, "I don't want to wake up on November 3 and feel I haven't done everything I possibly could to make a change in the government."
And there is John Burton, 24, a Harvard-educated Washington economist, who is going to Akron for Election Protection, a civil rights coalition expected to deploy 25,000 volunteer watchdogs against fraud in heavily minority voting districts in 17 states. A Florida native, Burton said the lesson he learned in 2000 is that "there's nothing more important than the integrity of the ballot."
They are among tens of thousands of men and women driving, flying, carpooling and riding buses across state lines -- even across the country -- in an explosion of strategically targeted activism that has stunned operatives in both major parties. Many of those involved said they have never before worked for a political campaign.
"I call it 'Lawyers Without Borders,' " cracked Rutgers University political scientist Ross K. Baker, referring to the organization Doctors Without Borders and quickly adding that lawyers are hardly the only ones hitting the road. "It's a measure of the incredible intensity of this election. People believe there's a great deal riding on it, and they understand, remarkably, that merely casting a vote in a safe state is a limited asset to the side they want to support."
Outpouring of Voters
Dozens of traveling volunteers said in interviews that their intensity comes equally from their perception of stark differences between Bush and Kerry and from the long shadow of the contested 2000 election. Republicans and Democrats said they learned from the Florida recount that every last vote and any irregularities in a close race can change the national outcome. "We don't want another Florida, not in Florida, Ohio or any state," said Ralph Neas, head of the Election Protection coalition.
So, just as the campaigns have all but ignored solidly "red" (pro-Bush) states such as Virginia and Texas and solidly "blue" (pro-Kerry) states such as Maryland and California, tens of thousands of voters in those states have left in search of the real struggle.
Some are working through the campaigns, national parties and interest groups on canvassing, phone banking, poll-watching or driving voters to the polls. But the outpouring, particularly among anti-Bush forces, has in many cases overwhelmed the infrastructure set up to capitalize on it.
While pro-Kerry volunteers were eager to talk about their travels and efforts, Republican volunteers even in small towns referred a reporter to the Republican National Committee, saying they have been instructed not to talk about their activities.
EMILY's List, a Democratic abortion-rights fundraising coalition supporting Kerry, recently e-mailed members seeking volunteers to fly to Florida at the organization's expense to get out the vote on Election Day. "Within 36 hours, we had filled four planes with 650 people, and we had such a large waiting list we had to shut it down," said Karen White, the national political director.
Undeterred, anti-Bush volunteers are finding each other on the Internet, through such Web sites as drivingvotes.org, a sort of virtual carpool where people have posted dozens of planned trips to swing states, inviting like-minded travelers to join them and share expenses. A San Francisco posting reads: "This is the end game. Join us and hundreds of other activists massing in Las Vegas for the final push. Door-to-door canvassing, phone banking, rallies -- we'll do everything it takes to turn Nevada blue and send Bush packing!"
The site advertises that it is "not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee."
