Sunday a few of my friends and I (in western N.C.) went out to register voters. A full afternoon’s work led to about 40 new voters, and many of them thanked us for our volunteer work. This is a diary of my sunburned afternoon:
I live in a small town in North Carolina about 20 miles from a Walmart, the hub of that mountain community. Five of us went to Walmart to register people to vote today. I was there approximately 41/2 hours. I had no party affiliation signs and no campaign buttons, shirts or signs for any of the candidates.
The first hurdle was Walmart itself. When one of our group inquired about registering voters, the management said no. It's odd they would deny our request; the Salvation Army collects money in front of their store during Christmastime. Next door, the Dollar Tree agreed so we set up tables and chairs as close to Walmart as possible to access the heavy foot traffic that flows in and out of that store. During the time we were registering voters, four different male managers come out at to monitor us. One even took time to read our sign and to listen to what we were saying to people. Below is a photo of the largest crowd we had at any one time. You cannot see our group in this picture because of the number of people registering.
We are all democrats and one of us was from the Obama campaign. The person from the Obama campaign was sent to NC in preparation for the upcoming primary.
Not everyone was sympathetic to our voter registration drive and there was evidence of blatant sexism and racism from strangers. One older gentleman drove by us in a pick-up truck and hollered loudly "F**ckin' Democrats." He knew we were Democrats because Republicans don’t want people to vote. Another man kept crossing in front of us and asking "Who should I vote for?" Every time I would say "We are not here to tell you who to vote for, just to register people to vote." Twenty or so minutes later he was back saying the same thing and I told him the same thing. But before he could leave, the young lady from the Obama Campaign said "I can't tell you who to vote for but if you ask me who I am voting for I can tell you that." He said "O.K. who are you voting for and she said "Obama" and he replied "I would never vote for a woman or a Nigger." They started to get into a discussion and I walked away to continue to my registration drive. In the background, I heard the Obama rep say "He brought people together in Chicago" and he replied something like "If you get him elected do you know what the Niggers' will do to us."
An hour or so later another older gentleman asked her who the Obama rep was voting for and again she said "Obama" and then someone called her away. The man then walked over to me and said "Did that girl say she was voting for a colored man?" I replied "We have no party affiliation in this venue we are only trying to get people registered to vote." He then said he would "never vote for a colored man or a woman."
On the flip side while a young man was registering to vote for the first time he made a comment that Obama was a Muslim. And the Obama representative replied to the first time voter that the comment was ignorant. And a friend of mine said "misinformed perhaps, but this is only voter registration."
The Obama representative speaks fluent Spanish and that area of western N.C., like many places in the U.S., has many hispanic immigrants. We spoke to approximately 50 Spanish speaking people and nearly all of them were not eligible to vote; they are illegals. We did register two or three hispanics, which was great.
I was very surprised at the number of women that said that they would not register and would never vote. A number of people that were registered said there was no person worth voting for. Many persons from that area are still angry at the "road to nowhere" and what they see as a history of neglect by the government. During WW II the TVA displaced several hundred families who lived in the area that is Fontana dam and lake. You might know this area from a popular movie that depicted the flooding by the dam: Deliverance. The government promised to build a road connecting the communities split by the formation of the lake but the money was never authorized to do more than begin the project. An excuse was made about environmental impact. People from that area were disgusted that the government paid more attention to environmental concerns than the citizens who lived there. The road to nowhere, as it is called, ends abruptly at the side of a mountain. Cyclists and tourists to the area are frequent travelers on that quiet, dead-end road.
Overall I had a fulfilling experience which we intend to continue before taking up the Obama campaign in earnest. But the open bigotry and hostility against black people and women was an eye opening experience. Is this 1950 or 2008?
Monday Morning Update:
After the voter registration experience yesterday, the local DNC people removed the Obama sign from their store front window this morning because "it was too controversial." We can only hope they will replace it when the other candidates' signs arrive.
In addition all of this has made me think twice (a woman alone) to put the Obama bumper sticker I bought on my car. I will post a sticker on my car when we have a ticket.