•  Campaign Videos (October 2011) « Obama for America
  

[Music] [Nat. sound of people arriving at meeting]

Unidentified Woman (staffer?): Alright, everybody.  Who's ready to go save some voting rights in Ohio?  [cheers, applause]

Denise Woods, President-Summit County Progressive Democrats: Some friends of mine and I have driven down from Akron to help deliver the petitions full of signatures that we've been collecting for the past several weeks to repeal House Bill 194 that makes it harder for people to vote.

Greg Litzenberg, volunteer: This is the end of our first phase of collecting signatures, and from this point we're going to go back and gather more signatures just to be sure that we have enough valid signatures for the Secretary of State.

People meeting: Oh my goodness, we've talked so much; it's so great to meet you.

Maureen Diederich, volunteer: It's important to me because I care about people and I don't want to see rights taken away, I don't want to see people have their lives changed without them having the right to make a decision.

Unidentified Woman (staffer?): When we first came up with this idea to save voting rights we were told by just about everyone that it wasn't possible, but we knew all of you and we knew what you were capable of and we told them no, we're just going to go do it.

Denise Woods: So today we have collected all of the signatures on the petitions, we've bundled them all into boxes, and we've put them on the truck and we're getting ready to deliver them to the Secretary of State's office.

Ohioans know an injustice when they see it.  This is a spark that really got everybody's attention.  When they start making it harder for people to cast their ballot, it gets their attention and we don't like it and we've put a stop to it.

[Nat. sound: People marching and chanting]

Elaine Eyre: This affects every voter in the state of Ohio; it's not just a certain party or anything.  I think all citizens who vote in Ohio should be concerned about this legislation.  A lot of people when we do talk with them they have no idea that this legislation was in place.

Denise Woods: Some people would stand and listen very patiently to what I would say to describe the bill and after two or three items that I would describe they would say, give me that petition, I want to sign it right now.

Chris Redfern, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman [speaking through megaphone]: They said it couldn't be done.  They were wrong.  In six weeks you and all of Ohio collected 318,460... [cheers, applause]

Greg Schultz, Ohio State Director - Obama for America [to camera]: We made a great first step.  We're going to keep collecting signatures; we have a few more weeks to keep collecting.  A lot of people still want to be involved in this process, so we're going to make sure to keep collecting signatures to make sure every Ohioan's voice is heard and to make sure we can stop House Bill 194 from going into effect.

Greg Schultz [speaking to crowd]: We're fortunate.  The work you did today proved that people working together can overcome great obstacles.  Just like in 2008, just like in 2007, just like through the course of our nation and our state's history, you have proved people working together can do it.  So I want to thank you for the work, and you guys should all give yourselves a round of applause.  [applause]

[Music up] Chants: Yes we can.

Greg Schultz [voiceover]: Log on to OH.BarackObama.com to find out how you can get involved today.

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Copyright © 2011 Eric M. Appleman/Democracy in Action.