Need Moral Support. How is Your 4/29 Neighbor-to Neighbor Canvas Looking?

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Wednesday April 26, 2006 · 5:50 PM PDT

2006/04/26 · 17:50

Ok, it's Wednesday evening. Two and a half more days until we start knocking on doors and handing out those beautiful doorhangers the DNC has provided. How is your event looking? If you have reason to believe it will be a huge success (lots of people signed up that you are sure will show, all your materials ready, walk lists printed, etc.) please post a comment telling the rest of us how you are doing it. I can't believe I'm the only one out here who could use some moral support and hand-holding.

I have a great collection of reasons that my best political friends can't do this on Saturday. And honestly, they are true. Bad knees, bad feet, I'll be at the Darfur march in Washington, I'm flying to California, death in the family and I have to go to the funeral (yes, this is real), something came up at work and I may have to be at work on Saturday. As Shakespeare knew, there is a lot of truth to the cliches of life.

This morning I thought we would have somewhere between 2 and 20 people. Tonight I'm hoping for 6, tops. I still think 2 is the absolute minimum we can have, because I just got an assurance from my husband that he will definitely be there if I am. And I will be there. We never had a lot of people sign up online (although those folks may be the ones who do show up) because most people I know seem more comfortable calling or emailing. How are the rest of you succeeding at volunteer recruitment, especially in smaller cities and rural areas where the population density is lower.

On the plus side, I have printed labels for the doorhangers to direct people to the local party and have some of them stuck on. The doorhangers are really nice and we got 500 of them. We have some targeted subdivisions where the houses are pretty close together. I have the lists of registered voters so I can print 'walk lists.' That is another uncertainty. Having never seen a 'walk list,' I have no idea what one should look like except that the names and addresses should be in order to walk up one side (even house numbers) then down the other side (odd house numbers). What other information should be there besides voter name, address, a space to record whether they appear to be Dems, Reps, or undecided/independent. How many names to a page? We don't register by party, so that is the information our local committee really wants out of this canvas. Our goal is to find the Democrats.

We also have the script and tips from the DNC website and those look great. I will scrounge up clipboards and already have voter registration forms, applications for absentee ballots and a calendar of election dates, etc.

Even if we only have 2 canvassers, I plan to learn a lot on Saturday, and do it better next time. So, if you have success stories or advice or just sympathy, please post it in a comment.

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