GOTV Matters: Charlottesville and winning the Attorney General's race

If you want a clear demonstration on why GOTV (Get Out The Vote) measures such as phone banking and canvassing matter, look no further than the election for Attorney General in Charlottesville. Charlottesville has 22,850 registered voters, of whom 9,858 bothered to vote for an Attorney General candidate last Tuesday.

The city of Charlottesville voted overwhelmingly in favor of the Democratic ticket, with 79% voting for Kaine and with 78% and 77% voting for Byrnes and Deeds respectively. Currently, Creigh Deeds is 410 votes behind McDonnell. If instead of having 43.66% of the registered voters in Charlottesville vote in the AG race, we had had 46.9% vote, then Deeds would be the current front runner for the election.

A little over a 3% increase in voter turnout and instead of being 410 behind we would be 1 ahead. And then we could all be breathing a little easier right now.