Perhaps your wife called too late? Project Orca needed 15,000 volunteers - they had over 34,000.
I can only speak to my experience:
I volunteered making calls and knocking on doors - I also signed up to be an ORCA volunteer.
The call system was sophisticated and efficient - it was light years ahead of the one we used during the McCain Palin campaign.
The campaign office was well stocked with signs from day one - during McCain Palin you couldn’t BUY a sign.
The rallies were were well organized and well attended They were gave away loads of signs, flags, pompoms, etc.
We had TOO many volunteers for the polling place I was assigned to.
There was a technical problem with the app for the state of Colorado’s gateway but it was corrected by 11:00 am. Data flowed smoothly after that.
I worked calling the strike list later in the afternoon. What was striking to me was how many people had already voted! The Early Vote GOTV effort looked pretty darn successful.
We still lost Colorado and the election. :(
What can I say.
We worked it here in Illinois. It was excellent and a much improved version. We consistently hit people who were voting for Romney/Ryan.
The enthusiasm was extremely high. Go figure.
If they only needed 15,000, then they should have let the rest of us know we weren’t working instead of sending us credentials, etc.... I would have helped out at the campaign office or somewhere else.
I took a whole day off work right after a vacation when I was out for a week and spent alot of money switching my Iphone from AT&T to Verizon because AT&T’s service is so bad. I had the expense of an Iphone, plus early cancellation charge, but was willing to do it to help Romney. I was worried that I wouldn’t have good enough service with AT&T. Would have rather known that they weren’t going to send me the pdf or ever respond to my calls or emails.
I still like Mitt, but Dan Centinello can go blow!
Obviously Orca had a lot of issues in some places. For what little it is worth, Lawyers for Romney was light years ahead of McCain/Palin. I volunteered online, gave them a bunch of information, received an assignment, and was able to immediately contact a campaign rep where they wanted me.
In 2008 I had to have folks pass my name on to the campaign in a daisy chain of emails, and after several attempts I got back, through the daisy chain, an assignment in New Mexico. When I showed up, the local party was doing all the work, and was barely even in contact with McCain/Palin -- in what was supposed to be a swing state. The other out of state lawyers told the same tale, they were only there because they had pestered contacts in the Republican Party until they were finally given an assignment.