aT 5:30 (with polls closing at 8) I was redirected from the precincts I'd been walking all day. A trailer park that reliably leans Democratic but with reliably low turnout was performing worse than nusual, so I was sent to hit every identified Darcy supporter. Most of them were marked as having been issued absentee ballots, but had not gotten them in yet as of Monday night. After about an hour of trying to persuade people that they really ought to go down to the elementary school and vote after dinner, I found a voter who inspired a powerful new strategy.
She said "Yes, I have a ballot, and I started to fill it out, but I never finished it. I don't really know who these candidates are, so I decided not to bother." Up to this point I'd been unfailingly polite and brief with non-voters, but I figured I had nothing to lose with this one. SO I said:
"Yeah, it can be confusing sometimes. But right now our kids are dying in Iraq for no good reason, and they're counting on us to help bring them home. And we've got one hour left to do it. So if you want to finish that ballot, I'll be back in 20 minutes to pick it up, and I'll hand-deliver it so your vote will count. If you think Bush is on the wrong course, vote for Democrats." I was a bit surprised when she agreed. For the rest of the night my rap consisted of "I'm from the Darcy Burner campaign, and I'm here to pick up your absentee ballot if you haven't mailed it yet." Score: 4 ballots in a single hour of canvassing, including a second "fill it out, I'll be back for it" one.
We had 300 volunteers out today for Darcy, so if she wins by 1200 votes, 4 of those were mine...
What's your election day war story?