WI Recall progress report--my perspective

I voted early on Saturday morning. It was a good feeling. It was around 10 am at the city-county building in downtown Madison. There were six people ahead of me and as I was waiting and voting probably another 5 people came in. I was told by the person who looked me up on the computer that early voting was moving very briskly since it began early last week. This is good news for Barrett at least in Madison--a very progressive city.

Then it was on to calling on behalf of Barrett on Saturday and Sunday. Our goal is to reach as many Democrats who voted in 2006 and 2008, but for whatever reasons didn't vote in 2010. Given that it was a holiday weeknd I got more answering machines and/or non answers/ people who didn't want to talk than actual answers. But of the roughly 77 people I actually talked to during my shifts--both on cell and land lines--the overwhelming result was that these people were DEFINITELY VOTING--by my count (and I kept track as I wanted to know myself)--70 said yes, they were voting and all but 2 said they were voting for Barrett--1 was voting for a third party candidate and one was going to vote for Walker--not because he was a big fan of Walkers, but is not a big fan of Recall elections. Of the other 7 people, two said THEY WERE NOT GOING TO VOTE--again because they oppose recalls. I told them that this recall was highly unusual and only occured because a million Wisconsities signed petitions because Walker was going against policies that had been supported by Democratic AND Republican governors. One said they would think about it. The other five said they would 'probably vote' and that they would probably vote democratic--again I urged them to do so and spoke about early voting to make it more convienient.

So all in all, I would say we have a high intensity on our side. If we can get a large share of the voters who are democrats who sat out 2010, then I think we can win this. It will all come down to GOTV.