Edwards GOTV Operation

Below is an excerpt from a field memo on the the strength of John Edwards New Hampshire organization. The memo is from the Edwards national campaign manager, Congressman David Bonior.

"Our field program by the numbers:

We have 12 field offices up and running in New Hampshire and we are continuing to expand. In advance of GOTV, we are adding 5 new offices in Plymouth, Claremont, Exeter, Salem and Peterborough and expanding the size of offices in Laconia, Rochester and Keene to accommodate the overwhelming numbers of volunteers who have come in to help reach out to their neighbors and friends on behalf of the campaign.

We have nearly 80 paid staff in New Hampshire, the vast majority of whom are organizers. We have continued to add staff in the last few weeks in anticipation of our GOTV effort.

Our paid staff is supplemented by hardworking and dedicated volunteers. Literally thousands of volunteers have come in and worked shifts for the campaign.

Those volunteers, in conjunction with our field staff, have made nearly 1.5 million phone calls to their neighbors and friends in New Hampshire during the campaign and knocked on over 235,000 doors.

We have enormous weekly capacity. Last week alone our team made over 130,000 phone calls to voters and knocked on over 30,000 doors. To put that in perspective, about 220,000 voters voted in the primary in 2004. Through our neighbor-to-neighbor field model, our team is capable of reaching over half of that universe every single week with live phone calls and door knocks."