All day long, grassroots phonebankers like Steph in Colorado have been making last minute Get Out the Vote calls to Oregon and Kentucky. After months of campaigning and weeks of calls, it can be easy to dismiss the impact that these last few calls can have. But as Step wrote on her blog today, the impact of these calls is measured not just in the polls, but on the effect your calls can have on the lives of the people you reach:

Today I called Kentucky to GOTV. I love doing this because it proof of how much more similar we are than different. About 10 or 12 calls in I came across Mary Lee, when I first spoke with her, she had mentioned how she was recovering from a stroke, and wasn’t sure how or if she would be able to get to the polls today. She also told me how badly she wanted to cast her vote for Barack Obama, but she had given up her hope of being able to do so.

I told Mary I would help her find a way. I called the 866 number on Mary’s behalf to find out about poll rides. I got all her information so that I could sign her up. I called her back to let her know that she should receive word on when a volunteer would be able to pick her up. She was so pleased and grateful to be able to cast her vote today.

This by far was the most rewarding of calls I’ve made. Because she had given up hope. I think this story epitomizes what this campaign is all about. Where there is hope (and persistent people working hard in the background) there is always a way!

The Kentucky calling campaign runs until 6:00 PM CDT tonight, and the Oregon calling campaign runs until 8:00 PM PDT.