Can a group of progressive self-organizers and a few hundred vans turn out 10,000 Ohio votes for Obama?

That's the hope of a loosely-knit group of activists who have launched a Vote Today Ohio campaign to raise the funds and organize volunteer for deployment for Golden Week -- September 30th through October 6th -- during which "any Ohio citizen can walk into an early voting center, register, AND vote on the spot." Vans go for $750 for the week, and each should, organizers predict, produce at least 250 votes.

Through ActBlue, the campaign has raised $42,329 so far -- enough for 62 vans. Tate Hausman, one of the organizers behind the site, reports that thousands in additional funds have come in via check.

Ohio Republicans are protesting the existence of Golden Week. Ohioans, argues Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner, have long had same day registration and early voting. What's different this election cycle is that Ohio instituted no-excuse early voting in 2006. Early voting begins Sept. 30 and voter registration ends Oct. 6 -- thus Golden Week. The Ohio GOP filed suit earlier this month to close the window, arguing, reports the Wall Street Journal, that "the one-stop process will encourage fraud."

Democrats are eager to make use of Golden Week because it means voters avoid long lines and nefarious election-day tactics. It attracts coveted first-time voters; Vote Today Ohio is targeting college campuses as well as the urban areas of Columbus, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Dayton, and Toledo. And it avoids situations where new voters register but don't vote. By banking early votes, it allows the Obama campaign focus on dragging in a smaller pool of voters on election day. On Daily Kos, OrangeClouds115 says "I would rather give my money to this campaign instead of directly to Obama because I know it's going EXACTLY where it is most needed and actually resulting concretely in votes."

Those votes might actually determine who ends up in the White House. Ohio carries a coveted 20 electoral votes, and the latest Real Clear Politics poll average has the state virtually tied, with John McCain leading by a slim margin of 1.6%.

Vote Today Ohio is working under the umbrella of America Votes. But the effort sprung up, reports Hausman, when a couple of web-savvy progressives were struck by the opportunity presented by Golden Week while sitting around watching Barack Obama's Democratic National Convention acceptance speech. "We set up Blogger in 15 minutes." Google Docs provided "instant infrastructure." "Really," says Hausman, "what we are isn't an organization. Really what we are is a meme."

(Thanks Hannah Sassaman for the heads up on the campaign.)