If you’ve procrastinated about volunteering for a presidential campaign this season, few precious hours remain to get your fill of phonebanking. Bwog Daily Editor Mariela Quintana has compiled the following Procrastinator’s Guide to Phonebanking.

McCain:

Bwog could not find any information about phonebanking for McCain, but the candidate’s website offers a comparable alternative. (You must sign up as a volunteer in order to gain access to site.) Instead of going to a community headquarters, volunteers sign-up to phone bank online and then the site provides them with a script and person and telephone number to contact in Virginia. Once the volunteer calls and asks the appropriate questions on the script, he has to record the outcome on form that the website also provides.


Obama:

Obama phonebanking requires actually going to a community location.  Although the initiative started in New York on Saturday, it will be running through Tuesday.

The Obama website lists tons of public/community centers in Manhattan and the other boroughs that are hosting phonebanking sessions. Unlike the McCain site, the Obama site is really easy to use.  After you key in your zip code (for 10027, here’s the link), the site links you up to phonebanking centers in your area. The only requirements are a charged cell phone and a cell phone battery.  Usually shifts run for about two hours or so.

— MEQ