BRIGHTON — Barack Obama stopped at one of his volunteer campaign offices Sunday to pump up and thank his supporters and make calls to voters, most of whom were stunned to hear his voice.
“Doesn’t it sound like me?” Obama asked a woman on the other end of the phone, as the volunteers laughed out loud. Once the woman was convinced she was really speaking to Obama, she told the Democratic presidential candidate she had already voted for him.
“I won’t let you down,” he said.
About 30 volunteers, armed with digital cameras, and some of their small children crammed into a box- like, sparsely decorated office sandwiched between a Rent-A-Center and a Blackjack Pizza in a strip mall here.
Hand-made signs reading “Secure America’s Future” and “Those who stay will be champions” adorned the yellow and blue walls. A canvassing check-off board hung in the corner.
Obama gave the volunteers a short pep talk, asking them not to give up in the final nine days before the election and continue their hard work.
“I’m proud of you,” he told them.
Earlier, the Illinois senator, sleeves rolled up, sat at a small table filled with voter contact sheets. He held a volunteer’s 13-month-old and jokingly asked the baby: “Can you make some calls?”
Obama stumbled at first, getting an 11-year-old boy on the phone whose parents weren’t home. After that, the next 10 calls went smoothly.
“Hi. This is Barack Obama, and I wanted to know if you’ve made a decision because I would love to have your vote,” he said repeatedly.
At one point, he said to a man: “I’m trying to find out if you’re voting for me or not.”
One woman said she was “100 percent for Obama,” and a man with a hard-to-pronounce name told Obama that “whenever I hear them talk about your name, I’m right there with you.”
Every person he spoke to said they had already voted for him or planned to vote for him.
“I don’t know whether the fix was in,” Obama said when he finished making calls. “But we had a lot of support on the phone.”
Karen E. Crummy: 303-954-1594 or kcrummy@denverpost.com
