PORTLAND -- Former Gov. Barbara Roberts rallied over 100 volunteers at Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama’s campaign headquarters in southeast Portland on Saturday morning.

The volunteers huddled together for a quick lesson in community organizing before fanning out into Multnomah County to make sure that Oregonians who had yet to turn in their ballots would make sure to vote.

“Smile, sing in the rain because you have a lot to be happy about,” Roberts told the crowd. “And on November 5, you will have even more to be happy about.”

Roberts also spoke about concerns that Oregon voter turnout was lower than previous elections, which made the volunteers' canvassing efforts all the more important.

“The polling numbers are good, but we have got to get the vote out,” Roberts said. “Only 48 percent of Democrats have returned their ballot so far.”

Roberts also spoke about the importance of making sure voters checked the box for Democrat Jeff Merkley in the U.S. Senate race, as clipboards with “Jeff Merkley” stickers were passed out to the crowd. She said that enthusiasm for Obama was high in Oregon but that the state still had a lot of work to do to get the Oregon House Speaker sent to Washington, D.C.

“We have to give the U.S. Senate another Democrat,” she said.

The canvassing effort in Portland was part of a bigger effort on part of the Obama campaign to get the vote out statewide, Obama’s Oregon campaign spokeswoman Sahar Wali said. Wali said that similar events were going on at Obama offices across the state, as well as canvassing centers in areas that did not have an Obama office. She estimated that the number of Oregonians volunteering to help the campaign this weekend was several thousand.