Barack Obama supporters stand in the rain during a rally at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., in September
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Nevertheless, Wyche continues his efforts, independently. Several days ago, Wyche received an e-mail from an Obama supporter reporting that she'd registered 20 new voters. "Proud of you," he wrote back. But he points out that many people who register to vote late in the election season don't bother showing up at the polls. His suggested pitch to those folks: "The great thing about our country is, on Election Day, Donald Trump and you are equal. He gets one vote. You get one vote. He's going to use his. Are you going to use yours?"
Meanwhile, other activists are taking similar steps. The NAACP has launched "Arrive With Five," a campaign encouraging its members to bring five friends to polling stations. In predominately black Cleveland, Basheer Jones, 23, is bringing voting-rights experts on his popular morning radio show to puncture the assumption that ex-felons can't vote. He is also promoting a rally and parties sponsored by black fraternities intended to get black Ohioans to vote early; the price of admission is a sticker proving that you voted. "We don't want anybody to have a reason to not vote," he says.
But if some criticize the Obama campaign for failing to reach out enough to black voters, the GOP isn't taking advantage of the opening. In 2004, President Bush carried 11% of black voters nationally. After a GOP convention in which blacks accounted for just 36, or 1.5%, of the delegates — down from 6.7% four years ago — the Arizona Senator is not expected to capture more than 5% of the black vote. That could be fatal in states like Ohio, where Jones, the Cleveland radio host, observes, "I haven't seen any John McCain posters. None. He hasn't reached out."
Asked why Florida Republicans declined to buy ads in black newspapers promoting McCain's candidacy, Jim Greer, the group's chairman, said, "I prefer to look at what really reaches African-American voters, what gets them engaged, and I'm not sure advertising is always the answer. The answer is sitting down to talk with them." Last year, for instance, Florida Republicans held a leadership conference in Orlando that drew some 500 blacks. Nevertheless, Clarence McKee, a co-chair of African-Americans for McCain in Florida, says of his party, "They have to do more to reach out to black voters, and they should do more."