My wife and I have cancelled plans to attend an out-of-town get-together (irking some friends) and have volunteered to be "poll greeters" in Tampa. The Tampa Kerry office was swamped. People had signed up at Sunday's rally (like we did) and they were still working like crazy, getting people out to keep voters' spirits up. We'd like to know more about what we should be doing. We were told "entertain the voters so they don't get discouraged and leave." Um, ok. How? Can anyone help, please?
As an aside, I've never seen this sort of voter turnout in my life!
(more after the break)
We are seeing lines in the
early voting longer than the regular lines in 2000. Last night, the College Hill early polling station was supposed to close at 7pm, and the call went out for everyone that could, to go down and encourage people to stay in line- there were EIGHT HUNDRED AND FIFTY people in line when the polling place closed! This is
early voting, folks! If they stayed in line, the polling place of course had to let them vote. This is an area with a large minority population, and most of these folks are working long hours to get by and can't afford to take a day off to vote. I can't imagine what the lines are going to be like today. My wife and I want to make sure we do everything we can to keep people in line upbeat about their vote. I'm asking anyone with experience in this to please give us some advice.
We've been assigned the midday shift at the Jewish Center Towers. "Great, retirees. I can do this." I think. "I can keep these folks entertained." I have over 160 big band and swing CDs. Then someone tells me that it's now a largely Hispanic area. Neither my wife nor I speak Spanish. How can we keep their spirits up and entertain them? I was thinking of bringing a portable CD player to play music, and some ice in an ice chest so we could wrap pieces of ice in shop towels for people to cool down. We also have two "misty fans" we could use to cool people off, and the Kerry office is supposed to be dropping bottled water off to each polling place to be handed out. What else can we do to keep people's spirits up and not run afoul of any election rules?
Neither of us have ever volunteered politically before. We want to do a good job, and certainly don't want to screw up and give the Gooper bastards any ammo. I know we can't talk politics, but what about advising people about these "voter challenges" we're sure to see? I spoke with a lawyer at the Kerry office last night about the mis-calibrated screens turning a Kerry vote into a Bush vote, and he said not to mention it because it will discourage people from voting.
Any advice anyone can give is GREATLY appreciated! I shake with rage when I think of how Bush stole the election down here with the help of Jeb's apparachiks, and I want to make sure that it doesn't happen again! We're taking a point-and-shoot digital camera, a 35mm camera, and our cell phones, just in case. I'll post some photos when we get back.