I've got a bumper magnet, I've posted here, I've written letters to newspapers, I've donated, I've phonebanked...now I've canvassed. If you're still curious, I've written about my experience below.
So I finally found a time in my life (Saturday morning September 20th) that wasn't already scheduled and I knew exactly what I had been planning to do, canvass for Barack Obama in Virginia, Fairfax County Richmond Highway Office to be more precise, Lee voting district to be even more precise. Why? Well, I could canvass in Maryland but an Obama loss there seems pretty remote at this point. So I drove the 35 miles to do my share in tipping Virginia Blue. My spouse and our 4 year old son came along as part of the team.
We arrived at the strip mall headquarters just around 10AM, and already there was a line of volunteers forming, lots of energy amongst those waiting, and like us, many were from Maryland and DC, even a few from further afield. Most shared the same sentiment, "There's no need to canvass in Maryland, so we came here". It took about 5 minutes of waiting to get my walk packet and unfortunately another 10 minutes of waiting to receive my training, which basically consisted of explaining everything we would find in our packet. It turns out the mornings walking routes were targeted at registered voters who are undecided, independent, or likely Democratic Party affiliated. Most of the people I actually talked to were latino/a, hispanic or african american or elderly white people. The goal was to Get Out the Vote but also inquire as to their likelyhood of voting, for which candidates (Obama, Warner, Moran) and whether they are currently registered to vote at the present address. Then capture this data on a tally sheet. By the time we were ready to leave, the line I had been waiting in was at least 50 people deep. A very good sign to me.
Anyways, most of the homes on our list were easily accessible townhouses in a bright, open, if somewhat variablly maintained neighborhood (as judged by lawn appearence). Unfortunately, I had to leave an Obama-Warner flyer at 41 of the 55 townhouses where no-one seemed to be home. Three people had moved according to the current resident, each of whom said they were certainly going to vote for Obama. I also had 3 refusals, all from people who didn't speak english. I marked the language on the sheet and the coordinator said there would be a call back in that language. Now I'm wishing I had taken Spanish instead of German :-P
6 of the 8 remaining targets were registered, and were definitely going to vote for Obama, and most of them seemed ready to vote for Warner as well. No-one had an opinion on the House race where JimM oran is the long-time incumbent. There were additional people who were not on the list and were asserting their intention to vote for Obama. Some of these people answered the doors I had been sent to but because the targeted person was not home, and they were of a different generation, I could not count them for the purposes of my canvassing.
I also had some strange encounters as well...there was an elderly woman who asserted she always votes Democratic and was disappointed she wasn't on my list, but she didn't want to volunteer :-) There was also an friendly elderly man of west asian descent with few teeth and lots of excited words and hand gestures for Obama. I'm not sure what his was trying to say, but I listened. Hopefully, he'll give his daughter, the voter, the flyer.
The two perplexing encounters, though somewhat expected, were with middle-aged white women, who asserted they were Deomcratic Party members (and identified on my sheet as such), were voting for Mark Warner but remained undecided about the presidential contest. I asked if there was anyway I could help them and one woman asked, "What legislation has Barack Obama made"? I must admit to drawing a blank...initially. I know, all I've read and researched. Luckily, I managed to describe the Transparency Act that lead to the establishment of USAspending.gov. Upon which she asserted that she would find her information from neutral sources. I'm not sure if I helped, but the coordinator at the office assured me that both women would be revisited in the near future, this walk was about showing people Obama supporters care about their vote and registration status and of course getting out the vote.
The prospect of influencing voters, though not my purpose on Saturday, seems more daunting now, especially with the Obama campaign rules that we aren't there to tear down McCain and Palin. A very different notion than arguing with trolls on the internet or typing a screed or witty quip about the latest outrage. Still I managed not to offend anyone, remained polite and distributed a fair amount of literature. So I feel I had a net positive effect for Obama...and myself, though I have now resolved (belatedly?) to strengthen my knowledge of more factual positive aspects of the Obama-Biden candidacy. And to anyone still reading...if you've got the time, I think you should volunteer, feeling like you are contributing to something larger than yourself, something really important, can be personally rewarding.