As most of you know, a day canvassing in "tough" areas is filled with the following: "not home", "not interested" and a variable number of "wound never vote for Obama". At the end of an afternoon of tough canvassing, my fellow canvasser and I had a pleasant surprise at a residential/rehab center in Northern Virginia and therein found a promising additional direction for our efforts.
Action Item: Find a residential center near you and see if you there are Obama supporters that need help or encouragement in registering or getting absentee ballots.
Last Sunday working as an Obama volunteer out of a grassroots office in Maryland, I was pleased to be paired up with "Hans", a Clinton supporter in the primaries and was canvassing for the first time. We quickly found we had lots in common, both politically and personally. So (as is so often the case with canvassing) the hard work of canvassing was accompanied by the pleasure of a new friendship.
Since Maryland is an "export state", most of our effort is directed at the key battleground states of Virginia and Pennsylvania. We were canvassing in a major population center in Northern Virginia. As we reviewed the "walk list", I noted one address with 5 voters of ages 65-98. The obvious inference was that address is a residential facility for the elderly. I flinched at the thought of canvassing there, based on an experience earlier this year during the Ohio primary. On that occasion we had canvassed a few voters in an elderly community and none were sufficiently in touch with the world around them to allow meaningful discussion. So Hans and I left that address until last.
Our canvassing was for "Voter ID" a major canvassing objective in Virginia for the following reason. Virginia is a state in which voters do not declare party preference when they register to vote. Therefore, the Obama campaign can infer Dem vs Repub only from a voter’s choice of ballot in the primaries,. For the many voters who don’t vote in primaries, the party affiliation is unknown. So a major effort in preparation for Get Out the Vote (GOTV) is to determine presidential preference those many voters. Most of our canvassing that afternoon was pretty typical. No one was home at about 75% of our "doors" Of the voters we found at home, many were not the voters listed (who had moved). But the contacts we made were pretty productive, identifying eight Obama supporters from the list and several more amongst the new residents.
For me, one of the hidden joys of canvassing is talking with people encountered along the canvassing route (except on election days in areas abounding in supporters of the opposition). That afternoon was no exception. We made almost as many contacts with Obama supporters in that way. In addition, I use the "buy in bulk" option at the Obama store to get buttons and bumper stickers and find Obama supporters are delighted to be given buttons/bumper stickers to express their support (and start conversations with others).
At the end of the canvas (about 6PM) we headed to the last "door" with the 5 elderly voters. Our low expectations for outcome quickly changed. At the entry ramp, we said hello to a 40ish year old man with physical disability in a wheelchair whose nickname we latter learned from others was "Sticky" In the course of the greeting, we mentioned we were Obama neighborhood volunteers and asked if he would be supporting Obama or McCain. His face lit up as he said "Obama". He went on to say that he was glad we were there and that "most of the people in here support Obama". There was a multiracial mix of residents there, with diverse ages and diverse disabilities. A few of the elderly voters we were sent to target were clear-headed enough for good discussion. Howeverr, there were MANY other residents who were delighted to see us. Many were strong Obama supporters; many were delighted to be given Obama buttons to display their support. But most of these folks would not readily get to the polls on election day. Some knew about the availability of absentee ballots others did not. Some knew that their social worker would help them request absentee ballots, others did not. So we had WAY more to do than we could manage in the 30 minutes we had remaining before we had to head home to Maryland.
Obviously we had only scratched the surface. So we followed up in several ways
- We explained the promising situation to organizers in our Maryland Office, who gave me the contact information of the Virginia Obama organizers for that area. I then with the Virginia folks who will be putting me in touch with the precinct captain for that area.
- I went back to the Residential Center yesterday with a new canvassing partner. Our time was still limited but we made more progress. Two of the residents that we saw a second time had talked with had gotten their social worker to complete a request for absentee ballot. We met two more who need to register to vote and will talk to their social worker on Monday to start the process. We filled out a voter registration form for a visitor there. Again we had to leave due to time constraints, but I am headed back there this afternoon.
There are more than 200 residents at this center. At least 2/3 of the residents I’ve interacted with are Obama supporters and many of those won’t be voting without encouragement and/or help in getting absentee ballot (and for some, registering). This is a goldmine compared to the 3 traditional neighborhoods I have canvassed in VA. So I’ll be continuing my efforts there.
Action item: There are LOTS more residential centers in battleground states. Not all of them will have the same favorable Obama bias as this one. But some, perhaps many, will be similar goldmines to this one. It’s worth other Obama supporters efforts in at least visiting the other ones and seeing where the opportunities lie. (It’s probably important to get information from the local Obama office on possible voters there, in order to legitimately sign in to the facility).
Together we can do this.