Democrats to make wide voter sweep

Democrats are pounding the pavement across Penn's campus and around the city with only two weeks left until the election.

The Penn College Democrats are focusing on coordinating volunteers for a fall break campaigning marathon, as well as for Election Day activities, according to College Democrats President Richard Eisenberg.

"The most important thing we can be doing is making sure Democratic voters get out to the polls on Election Day," Eisenberg said.

To that end, the group has organized a campaign to get Penn students to pledge to vote. Democrats say this effort, in which students sign a card that says they will vote on Nov. 2, statistically improves the chance that voters will actually go to the polls.

The effort also allows the group to target known Democratic voters on campus.

The College Democrats will continue their efforts on Locust Walk and around campus, with door-to-door visits in the college houses, until Election Day. Between 150 and 200 student volunteers will be encouraged to promote John Kerry and other Democratic candidates to "people they're already familiar with" in their own neighborhoods, Eisenberg said.

"We're fortunate right now to have a very large base of volunteers," he said. Eisenberg added that his group expects to have a few hundred volunteers on Election Day, to be divided evenly between on-campus work and volunteer efforts in the rest of the city and surrounding suburbs.

The College Democrats are also sponsoring "Fall Break for Kerry" events that they hope will persuade Penn students to stay on campus for the upcoming weekend and spend the time campaigning for Kerry.

A national service day for Kerry will be held on Saturday, in which students can help the campaign by doing community service events.

"I've noticed they've been more active on the Walk than the Republicans," College senior Julie Figueira said of the College Democrats' presence on campus.

Figueira said she has not been directly approached by the group, but would not be interested in volunteering on Election Day; she will be returning home to vote for the Republican ticket in New Jersey.

Downtown in Philadelphia, America Coming Together has finished registering 130,000 voters and is now working on mobilizing volunteers and voters for Election Day.

"We're knocking on doors all over the state," ACT Pennsylvania spokeswoman Rebecca Kirzner said. The Philadelphia office of ACT is the statewide headquarters for the nonprofit group, which works to turn out liberal voters in key areas across the country.

Pennsylvania is "one of the biggest prizes on Election Day," Kirzner said, allowing every volunteer to make a huge impact by giving time to the campaign.

"We are still looking for volunteers" to talk with voters, Kirzner said.

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