While the determination of political swing states hangs in the balance until tomorrow’s election, state Republican parties nationwide have not remained idle. With reports of genuine grassroots support building, Romney-Ryan yard signs outnumbering Obama-Biden signs and Rasmussen polls favoring Romney, it appears the president’s prospects are dwindling in Colorado.
State GOP organizations are sending buses of volunteers to key swing states like Ohio, Florida and Colorado. A group of 50 Republican volunteers from Oklahoma, known as the “reddest state in the country,” just returned from Denver on Friday and had a positive report on the perspective Republican voter turnout.
This particular group of unpaid volunteers knocked on more than 10,000 doors, going from house to house handing out campaign literature and making face-to-face contact with potential voters. The Colorado Republican Party facilitates these out of state volunteer deployments and has produced results of this quantity each week for the past several months. Neighborhoods and precincts are specifically targeted, usually chosen from the reportedly most independent or undecided counties in the state.
Obama’s campaign does similar work. Through occasional run-ins between Romney volunteers and Obama campaigners, it has been discovered that Colorado “volunteers” for Obama are actually paid $15 per hour to campaign for the president.
Of the returned early voting ballots in Jefferson County, 4,000 more Republican ballots were turned in just last week than were Democratic ballots. Based on the responses received by this week’s Oklahoma team canvassing the same county, these numbers are only expected to rise.
If candidate yard signs are any indication, enthusiasm for Romney and Ryan is way up over Obama and Biden. Volunteers saw hundreds more Romney-Ryan signs than Obama-Biden signs and Rasmussen reports backs up these indications with solid polls: Romney holds 50 percent of Colorado’s support, while Obama carries 47 percent.
If Obama volunteers must be paid to get out the vote in Colorado, Rasmussen reports a Romney advantage and yard signs favor the GOP contender, all signs are pointing to a defeat for the Commander-in-Chief.
