When you think of ways to spend your honeymoon, driving around homeless voters in the pouring rain in Cleveland probably doesn't top your list. But that's what Yoni Stadline and his new wife Vivian Lehrer are doing. It's been two weeks since the twenty-something New York City couple got married. They are parked in their rented red minivan outside a homeless shelter waiting to ferry residents to the county Board of Elections to register and vote.
Yoni Stadline: We figure the beach will wait past November 4th. The beaches will still be there, the hotels will be there but this is to important to wait, this isn't going to wait.
Stadline is one of over 200 volunteers working in eight Ohio cities this week. The PAC Vote Today Ohio wants to take advantage of this unusual one week window where Ohioans can register and vote on the same day. Founder Tate Hausman says he has a budget of less than $100,000 but he's hoping to turn out 10,000 new and unlikely voters from college campuses, food pantries and inner city shelters this week.
Tate Hausman: When you register someone early and then you have to go back to turn them out to vote you lose a lot of people. So what we are doing is capitalizing on this opportunity where its this one step process and we'll get their votes in the bank early so that we know they are counted on election day.
Hausman is hoping that many of these hard to reach voters will cast heir ballots for Barack Obama. While the McCain campaign is encouraging their Ohio voters to get to the polls early, the state's Republican party has been fighting same day registration and voting in court. Kevin Dewine is with the Ohio Republican Party.
Kevin Dewine: We believe the law is very clear in prohibiting a person from registering to vote and obtaining a ballot on the same day.
Dewine has blasted Ohio's democratic Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner for playing what he calls partisan politics. But his arguments aren't holding up in court. The state Supreme Court, two federal courts, and the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati have upheld Brunner's directive and are allowing same day registration and voting to go forward. First time voter Jan Moss Jr. says he wouldn't have come out if the process wasn't so easy.
Jan Moss, Jr.: I think my vote will make a difference. I think it really would. I think this a blessing to come out and do that all at once.
The tables were turned just four years ago, when Ohio's then Republican Secretary of State Ken Blackwell was the focus of controversy. State democrats argued that Blackwell was passing voting rules that favored his party and trying to suppress voter turnout. It's pretty clear on these Cleveland shuttles that most of the homeless are voting democrat. Even former Republicans like 52-year-old John Birhanzl.
John Birhanzl: The last time I voted was for Ronald Reagan. I just feel that we need a change. I'm scared of the Republican administration, what they're going to do.
On their first day, shuttles like the one Birhanzl rode, ferried more than 450 Ohioans to the polls. This Friday, vans are scheduled to take residents from Cleveland's largest shelter at 2100 Lakeside to register and vote. The last day of so-called "golden week" is Monday, October 6th. Mhari Saito, 90.3.