Reaching out for Obama

Jack Gribbon, California political director for Unite Here, the unions that include hotel and restaurant workers, oversaw an independent campaign focused on the swing area of Washoe County in the battleground state of Nevada. Knowing that Las Vegas and Clark County, in which the city is located, would probably vote for Obama, Gribbon sought to help swing the more conservative Reno-Sparks area toward the Democrat.

Using multiple voter lists, Gribbon targeted 16,000 voters, most of them with Spanish surnames, many of them Democrats and some of them newly registered.

"You can't win anything in Nevada just based on Clark County," he said. "You have to move the needle in Washoe County. If we pull it off, Washoe County goes Democratic. If we do that, the election is over."

It fell to Rebecca Avelar and 250 people like her to knock on those 16,000 doors.

Avelar, 24, a South Gate resident, has spent the better part of six weeks in Reno, taking a leave from her job at a bookstore at Los Angeles International Airport.

On Sunday, she walked through a working-class neighborhood east of downtown Reno. When people weren't home, she left door hangers with Spanish words touting Obama as a candidate "for all America."

Some voters welcomed her and told her why they were voting for Obama. A few were irritated at the intrusion, and closed the door, even as Avelar would tell them how important their vote was.

On Tuesday, she took a brief break. It was blustery, with stuff falling that seemed to be a cross between hail and snow. "Not like L.A.," she said. But she believed she was helping in a way she never had before.

"I'm not rich. I'm not getting paid for this. I can relate to them," Avelar said.

Back at the Century Plaza and call centers across the state, volunteers were on track to place more than 3 million calls to battleground states in the campaign's final 48 hours.

Sutherland, a Canadian, could not vote or make a campaign donation. But he could volunteer. Taking a brief break to explain why he was making phone calls, he turned passionate about Obama:

"You have a man who has intelligence, sensitivity, judgment, intellect. You can see the heart. You can see the hope. This is the most important election in the world."

He paused, composed himself, checked his call sheet, picked up the phone, and dialed Virginia.

"Mr. and Mrs. Allen, Donald Sutherland speaking. I'm calling from California."

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dan.morain@latimes.com