Published: October 06, 2008 10:57 pm         

Birch Bayh’s message in return to Terre Haute: Every vote matters

TERRE HAUTE — When seeking his first term in 1962 to the U.S. Senate, Birch Evans Bayh on Monday recalled how important each vote became in Indiana.

“Some of you will remember this, the margin of victory in electing Birch Bayh as your senator — two votes per precinct. If one person who voted for Birch Bayh had voted for someone else in each precinct in the state, we would have lost,” he told a small gathering of voters at the Terre Haute headquarters of Democrat presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Bayh, father of Indiana Sen. Evan Bayh, D-Indiana, was born in Terre Haute and served as a U.S. senator for Indiana from Jan. 3, 1963 to Jan. 3, 1981. He was a member of the Indiana House of Representatives from 1954 to 1962, where he served as House Speaker in 1959.

The former senator graduated from Purdue University, attended Indiana State University and graduated from Indiana University School of Law in 1960, starting in 1961 to practice law in Terre Haute, before moving to Washington, D.C.

Before leading the gathering, which included several Indiana State University students, to a campus’ satellite voting site at Cunningham Memorial Library, Bayh asked people to get others involved in the election.

“Get two more votes for Birch,” he said. “I am here to tell you that right here in Terre Haute and Vigo County, Indiana, we can make a difference. Indiana is very much in play.”

Nationwide, about a third of the electorate is expected to vote early this election. Nationwide, early absentee ballot voting is on the rise, with 16 percent cast in 2000 and 22 percent in 2004.

“What the pollsters aren’t able to detect is what is going here in our hometown and in every hometown across the state; where people here who are energized and some of whom have never been energized before and others whom are working harder than they ever had before. That doesn’t show up in the polls,” Bayh said.

“Take my two votes per precinct. If we can do that here in Indiana, we can carry Indiana for Barack Obama for president of the United States,” Bayh said. “If we can carry Indiana and we give our 11 electoral votes to Barack Obama, he is going to be president of the United States.”

Bayh also praised Sen. Joseph Biden, Obama’s vice presidential candidate, who served with Bayh in the Senate. Biden was first elected to the Senate in 1972.

Bayh spoke from behind a podium used by Democrat John F. Kennedy during his presidential campaign when Kennedy spoke on the Vigo County Courthouse steps on Oct. 5, 1960. Obama had used the same podium during a speech on his first visit to Terre Haute in April. Obama visited Terre Haute a second time last month. Obama will speak in Indianapolis on Wednesday.

Bayh recalls being at Kennedy’s speech in Terre Haute, holding Evan.

“We did what was impossible then. You could not elect a Catholic president of the United States and by darn we did it. And what a great president he was,” Bayh said, adding Indiana is poised to make history by electing Obama.

Several ISU students in the gathering planned to vote for Obama.

Leonard Perkins, 18, of Indianapolis is a freshman music education major at Indiana State University. “I registered to vote about three weeks ago,” he said, adding that he has been volunteering for the Obama campaign for a month.

Perkins planned to be among the first to cast an absentee ballot for Obama on Monday. He played a viola as students sang “God Bless America” before Bayh spoke.

Chelsea Gibson, 20, of Terre Haute, is a junior history/political science major at ISU. She registered to vote about a year ago. She has been working for the Obama campaign registering ISU students. About 2,000 students have been registered on campus, she said.

“Us students feel that we are the swing vote and that we are very important,” Gibson said. “I think that has brought out a lot of students.”

Gibson had Bayh sign an Obama campaign item to “Donna.”

“I got this for my mom. I am trying to convince her to vote for Obama. She is Republican,” Gibson said.

Howard Greninger can be reached at (812) 231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com.