The origin of the phrase “Vote Early and Vote Often” is usually attributed to Chicago mayor William Hale Thompson, a highly corrupt Republican politician who ruled the city from 1915 to 1923 and again from 1931 to 1935. The phrase itself described how political partisans could easily game the democratic voting process. As verifying a person’s identity was difficult in an era when people carried no form of identification on their person, astute politicians would urge their loyal constituents to vote starting early in the morning and at multiple polling stations. When thousands of reliable supporters voted for a candidate multiple times in one day, the vote could easily be swayed.
While the Obama campaign is by no means advocating such trickery, the mass communication infrastructure created by the Democratic candidate’s team has an incredible potential, one that has forever changed the nature of national politics. Imagine this: It’s Tuesday, November 4th. You are a lanky college Freshman waking up after noon following a night of rigorous studying. Leaving the bed, you feel the familiar vibration of the brand-new iPhone that rests in your pocket. You look at the screen and see that there are two new text messages, both from the Obama campaign. The first, sent at 8:00 AM sharp, is a reminder that today is Election Day and that the Obama campaign needs your vote. The second is a follow-up reminder, this one containing a special video message from Barack Obama himself. It’s 12:34 PM and you’re still in bed, but the Obama campaign has turned your mind to national politics and has reminded you to vote. You quickly hop out of bed and turn on your laptop, eager to check your Facebook and MySpace profiles. Besides a few regular updates to your Wall that are just extensions of mundane, circular conversations that have been skipping back and forth between your Wall and the Wall of your distant friend for over a year now, you see that the Obama campaign has sent you reminders. All who are friends with Barack on MySpace get a personalized message; one that is replete with the fancy HTML coding that caused millions to jump ship to Facebook. It’s now 12:40 PM on a cloudy Tuesday. You have received a total of four communiques from the Obama campaign, with two being text-messages, one a Facebook reminder, and the other a colorful MySpace greeting. Although your day schedule was previously clear, you make plans to visit the nearest polling station. You know who you’ll be voting for.
With the advent of high-speed internet connections and instant, worldwide messaging devices, the Obama campaign could have the ability to effectively mobilize a younger and more tech-savvy demographic, one that is usually associated with staying home every November 4th. The ubiquitousness of such communication devices gives the Obama campaign the capacity to remind potential voters constantly, to rally those students who may support him but didn’t plan on voting.
The McCain campaign had better watch out! While a certain phrase regarding the political process in Chicago is certainly outdated, the spirit it carries, that of mobilizing huge bodies of voters, is alive and well today. In a world of modern marvels and high-connectivity, the Obama campaign can and most certainly will be telling those able to “Just Vote!” on the first Tuesday of November.
Copyright 2008 Daniel Downs
