Wow. Canvassing is absolutely exhausting. I'm in Cleveland, OH canvassing with SEIU local 1199 out of New York, my home state. We're working night and day to be sure that wards notorious for low turnout head to the polls and deliver an upset victory for Senator Obama in Tuesday's primary.
I've had experiences that were bizarre, inspiring, scary, and hilarious.
Some fun anecdotes, canvassing tips, and sad stories below the fold...
UPDATE: Quick side note, I knocked 190 doors today. That's a personal record for one day. I'm proud of that. I've knocked over 500 doors since arriving here on Tuesday. Tomorrow I'm hoping to break my record again...
The first thing that hits home in a way it never had for a young guy from the suburbs of Long Island like me when canvassing in Cleveland is the reality of the foreclosure crisis. It used to be a sad tale, somewhat foreign to me. There were people somewhere who had been kicked out of their houses, I was told. It didn't quite sound fair.
Now I'm walking down their blocks though. And there are foreclosure notices and construction permits across houses everywhere. This is not the projects. This is middle class, upper class, working class homes. This is black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods, catholic neighborhoods, protestant neighborhoods, and orthodox Jewish neighborhoods. This is everywhere. Cleveland is dying.
On our "turf", there are entire blocks worth of names, people who used to live there and had been voting there for years, but their houses lay deserted when we visit. There are apartments, apartments with people who tell me they don't have time to vote because they're working too hard to make the rent. Many of these people used to live in houses in the neighborhood over. Their houses are now empty.
But there is hope. I will tell you something about Cleveland: Cleveland is fired up.
There was the mother who brought me inside and then proceeded to drill her children, "Who is Barack Obama and why we we like him?" A little boy, probably eight years old, responds "Barack Obama is a black dude who wants to be President." The woman is upset. "We don't care that he's black. We care that he's going to be the best President for your future," she reminds her son.
There was the eighty seven year old man who assured me that he was voting for Obama, that he was getting a ride from his granddaughter so they could both vote. He could barely walk, but he is fired up, and he's voting on Tuesday.
Some people are more cautious, some ecstatic. Some feel wary about telling you who their choice is for President, others cannot wait to shout it from the rooftops. But they all have the same message:
Cleveland is ready for change, and change cannot come soon enough to Cleveland.
I'm in a canvass group with four other people. I'm working out of a staging site with 10 other teams. We're an unlikely cast. We're SEIU staff and we're volunteers, we're black and white and asian and latino, we're organizers and health care workers and record store owners and political directors, we're gay and we're straight. We're people from all walks of life, from all backgrounds, and we're all going block by block for Barack, together.
Twelve hours a day, on their streets, in their churches, at their shopping malls, and in their homes, I am getting out the vote. Now, it's my job, the canvasser, to make sure my "knocks" follow through. I am making sure I let them know that I'm with the SEIU, that healthcare workers are going block by block for change. I'm making sure they know that they can vote early, that their polling location is up the street at the church or the local school, that we can give them a ride to the polls, and that the polls are open from 6:30am to 7:30pm. And I'm making sure they know that I'm coming back on Tuesday, that I'm depending on them to vote so that we win. And I'm happy to let you know that these people have already been visited by Obama volunteers (we can't coordinate with the campaign, so there is overlap) and been called by Obama volunteers.
And how important is the ground game?
Obama's success in Ohio rests on shoulders of ground troops
But next week, both campaigns predict the fiercely contested primary may see turnout three times as high. Many of those voters will be Republicans and independents able to weigh in on the Democratic contest, thanks to the state's "semi-open" primary (registered voters can request either party's ballot at the polls.)
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Obama's ability to draw these voters in numbers large enough to win a symbolically significant popular vote victory statewide will be seen by many as a signal of his team's effectiveness in what some volunteers are already calling a general election dry run.
CNN
I'm going block to block for Barack.