BY GARY ANDRES
reprinted from Weekly Standard
Zoila, Liam, and Alena were strangers with a shared goal. They met in Evanston, Illinois, last Saturday for the first time, telling other strangers they encountered as they walked door-to-door, “We’re here for the president.”
Actually, they were encouraging Illinois residents to vote for Democrats in November. But as Liam told Elizabeth Chan, a writer for the Vote 2010 blog, his group decided saying they were there for Barack Obama was a “great ice-breaking” line as they engaged in this partisan canvassing campaign.
These three volunteers joined thousands of others across the country last weekend, kicking off the Democratic Party’s Vote 2010 campaign. The initiative hopes to contact many of the 15 million Americans who registered to vote after 2006, and then cast ballots for the first time in the 2008 election.
Why are these voters so pivotal? First, about 70 percent of them supported Barack Obama. Second, research shows turnout falls off on average of about 20 percent in midterm elections compared to presidential contests; and first time voters are among those most likely not to show up in off-years.