I have knocked on a lot of doors in my life. In the early 1970s, I lived in East Rogers Park in Chicago and worked to defeat the Daley machine candidate. In 1988, I put my dissertation on hold for a the fall semester and knocked on a lot of doors in Urbana, Illinois to get the vote out for Dukasis. And, this continued in in subsequent elections.
In 2008, from the middle of August to the election I was out two hours a day six days a week trying to get the Obama vote out in my community. Neither Gore nor Kerry won the town I live in; Obama did.
I'm tired. I'm sixty, yet with the mosque crap and knowing how important it is to keep what we have, I have to do something.
I was out last night for the first time. My experience after the fold.
I was knocking on doors in the married student housing affiliated with the regional university in my town. Because this is very transient housing, I was looking for people who support Democrats and are not registered.
We have all heard stories about how our vote is not motivated. I expected a lot of people telling they just don't care. I was surprised.
When I asked people who usually vote for Democrats were registered to vote if they wanted to register where they are now living, I got a very good response. Only those who had a very reason to stay registered at their "home" address did not accept the offer to register.
This convinces me that it is not that our vote is discouraged and won't come out. Rather, our vote needs to be reminded how important this election is. If we can make contact with them, they will come out.
One more thing. All of the people I registered put down a cell phone as a number for contact. In other words, these voters can't be contacted by other campaigns and they have area codes different than where they are living. This has to make polling very, very difficult.
I'm going out again tonight. This time a friend is going with me.
Are you knocking on doors? What has been your experience?