Vicki Blaney, in the Davidson Obama campaign office. (David Boraks photo)

Vicki Blaney has never been involved in politics, but this year’s presidential election has inspired her. The McConnell resident has been working long hours with an army of about 100 local volunteers helping get out the vote for Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The campaign even has a Davidson office, near Exit 30.

On the Republican side, local party leader Wendi Amos says she has at least 50 volunteers going door-to-door, making phone calls and encouraging people to vote for presidential candidate John McCain and other Republicans on the ballot.

Interest in this year’s presidential race is high, and local manpower is important to both campaigns. Volunteers distribute signs and fliers, contact voters, and make sure party supporters are registered and vote. They’ll even supply rides to the polls. They provide the personal touch that could make the difference in not only the presidential race, but also other races up for grabs this fall.

DAVIDSON FOR OBAMA

Until this year, Ms. Blaney was an independent. “I’ve never been in politics before and never volunteered for a campaign,” she said. But she was disappointed with the 2004 vote that re-elected President George Bush, and decided this time around that putting a campaign sign in her yard was no longer enough.

She and a friend, Susan Dailey, got involved with the Obama campaign early on, before the primary in the spring. They and other volunteers work out of the Davidson office with a paid Obama campaign staffer, Jake Colleran. The office is at 582 Davidson Gateway Drive, which is south of the first roundabout at I-77 Exit 30.

Also helping out are Davidson’s Democratic precinct chairs, Bob Maier in Precinct 206 (the Town Hall precinct) and Budd Berro (Precinct 127, which votes at Hopewell Baptist Church).

Mr. Maier is recruiting volunteers to help out on Election Day. He has personal reasons for working for Obama. “I’m taking off the whole day from work to help at the poll. It’s the least I can do for my son in the U.S. Army, who heads to Iraq this month for his second deployment – and is an ardent Obama supporter, along with many of his Army colleagues,” Mr. Maier said in an email this week.

Democrats appear especially organized this time around, perhaps because of intense voter interest and because of the influence of the Obama campaign. The campaign has about 21,000 volunteers statewide, according to its N.C. press secretary, Paul Cox. “Our campaign is run at the grassroots level. Our work gets done by tams of local volunteers who are trained to organize their own neighborhoods to get out the good word for Barack Obama and to get out the vote during Early Voting and on Election Day.

The campaign is highly efficient and tech savvy, Ms. Blaney said, and volunteers and voters communicate through the campaign’s state-of-the-art Web sites as well as email and text messages.

“Obama’s campaign is so well run. I’ve been in sales and marketing for a long time and I can tell when things are well run. (Obama’s) grass roots organizing is done well,” she said.

The local Obama office is donated, like much of the supplies and labor, and with a big get-out-the-vote underway, it should be buzzing all weekend. The office has an eight-line phone bank and is running door-to-door canvassing across town.

Ms. Blaney said she was inspired when she listened to Sen. Obama speak after his victory in the Iowa caucuses last spring. The organization continues to inspire her and other volunteers with its organization and responsiveness, she said.

“They make you feel like you can make a difference – and you can,” she said.

DAVIDSON FOR McCAIN

Ms. Amos, like Ms. Blaney, lives in the McConnell neighborhood, and is a relative newcomer to campaigning. The 2008 primary election was the first she ever worked on.

“I have been rather apolitical,” she said this week. She got involved in the gubernatorial primary campaign of friend Bob Orr, and now finds herself as Republican Party chair for Precinct 127, which votes at Hopewell Baptist Church on Davidson-Concord Road.

Her task, and that of Republican volunteers, is “getting out the vote, make sure (voters) are aware of the offices up for election, making sure we answer questions on where the candidates stand on the issues, and directing them to opportunities to volunteer,” Ms. Amos said.

The McCain campaign has no Davidson office, but volunteers from throughout north Mecklenburg are working out of an office on West Catawba Avenue in Cornelius, at Magnolia Estates shopping center.

“I’m there about every day,” Ms. Amos said. She said many of Sen. McCain’s local volunteers are multitasking – working for other Republican campaigns as well as his. And she noted that many of the people she has met are not longtime activists, but political newcomers. “Some have not even consistently made it to the polls, but they’re active in this election.”

Ms. Amos’s counterpart as chair of Precinct 206 for the Republicans is Fountain Walker, the Davidson College police chief who ran for Town Board last year. He has only been in the job for a couple of weeks, but told us he’s been out knocking on doors in recent days.

Another newcomer is Bob Deaton of Cornelius, who runs the McCain Victory office in Cornelius. He was director of the Charlotte Department of Transportation before retiring. “I’m 71, and I’ve never been involved in the political process. But I couldn’t stand it, and I got involved,” he said.

He helped rent the office in Cornelius to give eager volunteers a way to help. “It was more or less a feeling that there were people who wanted to get involved, but wouldn’t go all the way to Charlotte,” where the McCain campaign also has an office.

OBAMA COATTAILS? BIG TURNOUT?

Experts and pollsters say the interest and organization on the Democratic side could help not only Obama, but Democrats on down the ticket.

Budd Berro is Democratic Party chair for Precinct 127 and a longtime local political organizer. He’s been working on the campaigns of Mecklenburg County Commission chair Jennifer Roberts and gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue. He thinks Obama’s organization and strength is helping all Democrats.

“It may be true that the Obama campaign has a lot of resources and volunteers. Other campaigns are seeing an indirect benefit,” Mr. Berro said. “Their efforts on voter registration and turning out the vote have been critically important to other candidates below the presidential level.”

Statewide and here in Mecklenburg County, the Obama campaign’s efforts are contributing to heavy turnout at early voting sites.

It’s not clear how Democrats’ efforts might affect the vote in Davidson. Republicans outnumber Democrats in the town’s two precincts by 37.7 percent to 34 percent. Another 28 percent of voters are unaffiliated.

Regardless of how people are voting, some think the intense interest here in Davidson could contribute to unusually high participation this year. “It has been suggested to me that for Davidson an 80 percent turnout would be a very reachable goal ,” Ms. Amos said.

That would confirm Davidson’s reputation for a high level of community involvement, she said. “In Davidson, we have very strong peer pressure from folks of all political affiliations to be involved in our community,” she said.

Although she is a new political activist, she also said she has been impressed at the level of experience she has discovered while going door to door and working with volunteers. “I am amazed with the depth and breadth of political experience folks have in our community,” she said.

With the close race, Ms. Amos and Republicans as well as their counterparts on the Democratic side are working hard to get people to the polls.

“This is going to be very close and every vote does count,” Ms. Amos said.

Get involved

Wendi Amos, precinct 127 chair for the Republicans, invites those interested in helping out on the McCain/Republican campaigns to email her or call her at 704-942-6444.

Prospective volunteers also may call the McCain Victory office in Cornelius, 704-987-4301. The office is at 8301-17 Magnolia Estates Drive, Cornelius.

Bob Maier, precinct 206 chair for the Democrats, says he needs volunteers to help at the polls on Election Day. To volunteer, call him at 704-996-7724 or email rg7850@mindspring.com.

The Davidson office for the Obama campaign is at 582 Davidson Gateway Drive.  To help out in the coming days, contact Vicki Blaney, 704-996-2378, or email her.