One thing that has energized me is the enthusiasm of all the paid staff and volunteers. Previously, I wrote about learning that some of my fellow canvassers had literally travelled thousands of miles including one person from Australia.
For the second day in a row, I worked out of a satellite office in Hampton Falls, which is located in southern Rockingham County. Because I live just across the border in Massachusetts, I was pared with a new volunteer who was not from the area.
My partner, Barbara, and I got along very well as we are both dog people and immediately had something in common to talk about. She really deserves praise for her effort as she started the morning driving all the way from Martha's Vineyard. For those of you unfamiliar with Massachusetts geography, the Vineyard is more than two hours drive south AFTER one takes a ferry to the mainland in Woods Hole.
Our assignment was a precinct in Seabrook, which is where the Seabrook Station Nuclear Plant is located. About half of our contacts were in a middle class development and the rest were in a more modest neighborhood.
Things started well when the first home we visited was a retired gentleman who said he was a lifelong Republican but was tired of the last eight years and was strongly supporting Barack Obama. The gentleman was very helpful too because he told us that the street numbers did not go sequentially in this neighborhood and seemed to be assigned in a random and haphazard fashion. Making matters worse was that some homes did not have a street number on the house itself or on the mailbox either so we needed to guess in some instances. Many of the street names in the development were similar as there was a Marshview Court, a Saltmarsh Court and Old Salt Drive.
The development was mostly populated by retirees and the homes seemed middle class and all the properties were meticulously maintained. I assumed, incorrectly, that many of the homeowners were Republican, but was very happy when our canvassing efforts revealed that most of the actual people we spoke to said they were voting for Obama.
There were some undecideds and ticket splitters, but only one person identified themselves as a McCain supporter. What was amazing was this man was a staunch Hillary supporter, but couldn't bring himself to vote for Senator Obama.
Our next stop was an older neighborhood on the side of Route 286. One one side of that neighborhood were some larger homes that were even more randomly numbered than the development was. The first house we stopped at, two huge German Shepards came running towards us. Being a dog people, Barbara and I stood our ground perfectly still and waited until the dogs came over to us and sniffed us. We were both frightened, but we stood our ground and the dogs backed off once they realized that we were not a threat.
People in this neighborhood, Adams Street, were somewhat kurt and many of them were either not home or refused to come and answer their doors. Those that we did actually speak with told us "we're all set" and declined to speak with us. IMO they would have been better off to actually acknowledge that they were McCain supporters but for whatever reason they didn't feel comfortable revealing that. Still, Barbara and I were able to reach all the homes on our contact list and our tallies at the end of the day were in favor of Obama by a five to one margin. The down ticket races were closer as we did meet some ticket splitters, who were mostly upset by Jeanne Shaheen for proposing to raise taxes when she was governor.
The lovely farmhouse that served as a local office for canvassers was full of warm and friendly people. The house actually smelled like apples when you walked through the front door. The great thing was they had some excellent food to feed us and if you spend the day walking around canvassing you really do get hungry. A plate of vegetable lasagna, homecooked by a generous volunteer, was a nice reward for a hard day's work. Everyone thanked us for coming and I made plans to return on election day to help drive voters to the polls.
Previously, I said I'm not certain whether or not I personally made a difference. Irregardless, I was glad to help out and even though it was a tiring day, I was enthusiastically looking forward to coming back and pitching in. The complete absence of rival canvassers for the McCain campaign only served to keep me Fired UP and Ready To Go. Less than 36 hours until the polls close in the Granite State. We can see the mountain top and we are nearly there.
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