It's easy to think of our individual efforts as so insignificant andinconsequential that they're hardly worth the effort. But when enough of usact in small ways, our combined impact can change history. That's true evenwhen our actions seem mundane and prosaic, yielding minuscule fruits for thelabor we put in. We can spend an entire day calling voters, distributingliterature, knocking on doors, and signing people up for rides to thepolls -- and produce only a handful of additional votes. Yet if 15,000 othersdo the same, or 50,000, or several million, working all across America, ourimpact can be literally world changing. That was true last election, where ahundred additional volunteers could have swung Florida even with all theRepublican machinations. It's never been more true than in thisneck-and-neck race.

We've done part of the key work already. Grassroots canvassers haveregistered record-breaking numbers of likely Democratic voters, particularlyin key battleground states. Americans Coming Together (ACT), which hascoordinated many of the progressive efforts, together with MoveOn, expectsto end up with 2.5 million new voters. Rock the Vote, less partisan, hasregistered close to a million young voters. The League of Independent Votershas been registering young voters at bars and clubs -- then going back againwith guides to an entire slate of progressive local and national candidates.A Cleveland professor had her students register voters at a jail wherepeople were awaiting trial, working with a local prisoner's rights groupthat registered 700 new voters. In Miami, the League of Independent Votersput out a CD with songs about the issues by local hip-hop artists and placedtheir local and national endorsements inside. It's been decades since somany people involved themselves in progressive electoral activism.

But the Republicans are also registering voters, particularly throughfundamentalist churches. They're organized, well-funded, and have skillfullycultivated a politics of backlash and fear. Combining both parties, amillion new voters have registered in Florida alone. Since new registrantstraditionally turn out far less often than those for whom voting is routine,how many and which voters show up will depend on what the rest of us do,from now through the election.

We can never predict the precise impact of these actions. A few years ago, ayoung environmental activist registered 300 voters at her Connecticutcollege, then saw her congressman win by 27 votes. Before she began, she sodoubted her efforts would make a difference that she almost didn't try. Mymodel for an engaged volunteer effort comes from 1992, the last time weended the reign of a Bush. On that Election Day, I joined five othervolunteers helping get out the vote in a precinct 25 miles south of mySeattle home, in a suburban swing district that also affected a keycongressional race. Thanks to roughly 50,000 volunteers, we had a similarpresence in nearly every remotely Democratic area of the state. Our effortsturned out enough supporters that we not only helped carry Washington forClinton and Gore, but also elected our first woman senator, captured eightout of nine House seats for the Democrats, and elected a strong populistgovernor.

Yet two years later, 1994, Washington state's volunteers stayed home, as didtheir counterparts nationwide. There weren't enough to canvass even the mostliberal precincts in the heart of Seattle. Dismal voter turnout allowedRepublicans to recapture all but two of nine Congressional seats, elect aregressive Republican to the Senate, and make Newt Gingrich Speaker of theHouse. The same thing happened in 2002. Grassroots support melted away inthe face of anger at Democratic capitulation on Iraq, and Republicans wonrace after race by the narrowest of margins. Had those voters who'd turnedout the previous election just participated, surveys in both cases suggestedthe results would have been reversed.

For the moment, enough of us are united enough against Bush's destructivearrogance that we'll have decent numbers of volunteers. And most of us willrecognize that just as when French voters united behind conservative JacquesChirac to reject the threat of the ulra-rightist Jean-Marie Le Pen, this isno time for above-it-all purism, like voting for Ralph Nader. But do werecognize how much our individual electoral actions can matter when they'resufficiently multiplied? What would happen if every environmentalist orunion member, every MoveOn member, everyone who feels that Bush has led thiscountry down destructive paths, worked in some way to get out the vote? Orworked with groups like the Election Protection Coalition to ensure thatevery eligible voter gets the chance to vote and that every vote is counted.It's easier if we live in a swing state, or can travel to one -- we simply signup with ACT or the local Democratic Party and plug in wherever most useful.But even if we don't, we can still contribute money for critical fieldefforts, and once we've done that, and then join phone banks being run byMoveOnPAC and ACT, calling swing state voters to help convince them to turnout.

Most of us reading this essay will vote. And maybe our friends will as well.But in a politically divided nation, victory will go to the side that turnsout the greatest numbers of their most marginal supporters, including thosewho doubt their vote will matter. Particularly when reaching out to thosepoorer and more transient constituencies that traditionally vote half asoften or less than the wealthier ones, getting people to polls isn'tsomething that can't be done by just running more ads. We have to make thephone calls, knock on the doors, and keep track of who has voted so we canremind people as many times as necessary that their vote could make the keydifference. This election will be won with presence and persistence.

Though we know this abstractly, what would happen if we recognized that ouractions matter precisely because we're joined by so many others? Our effortscould make that recognition a reality. We've anguished for four years overthis administration's destructive actions. Now it's time to act.