These are our volunteers, randallt, davehouck and Lamont Cranston. Would love to add your picture!
This our host, the amazing Earthfare.
The following is a brief roundup of the
DKos Asheville Voter Registration Project's second outing. Now with MORE volunteers, MORE registrations and MORE customer service! Oh yes, and more Spanish guitar.
If you missed last Tuesday's first attempt at registration, you can find the fun here.
Please join us below for round two.
Intrepid Kossacks davehouck and randallt were joined by DKos Ashevillian Lamont Cranston and the three worked valiantly to attract interest in their voter registration project. Accompanied by amazing Spanish guitar music, the afternoon unfolded seamlessly as people stopped to chat and ask for help getting registered.
When I got to Earthfare, my compatriots were already set up and busy. They weren't busy helping voters though, or so I thought. They were deep into a quasi political, spiritual and philosophical mostly one way discussion with a world traveling musician who plays with major bands. He was loud and had a nice, but somewhat adversarial thing going on. I went inside, got some pizza and coffee and came back out to listen to him with some light input for the next fifteen minutes or so. David finally said, "Why are you arguing?". After a couple of sputters, he just changed. It became more of a mutual conversation and in fact I am sure he was moved to consider what we were doing as legit. Nicely done David.
The weather was lovely, last week's construction project in front of the store was finished and we attracted a lot more interest. I'm not sure if our repeat presence made a difference but as we go through November I'm sure it will. Several people stopped by and said they were already registered but they just wanted to thank us. We had a few ask about the upcoming Asheville and surrounding municipal elections and we had questions from new residents about whether they were already registered or not.
The first question I took was from a woman who had recently moved to Buncombe County but wasn't sure if she was registered yet. With the trusty iPad, I was able to just look up her name and sure enough, there she was, registered and ready. The site shows the nearest voting place for her and gives a map and directions. We worked through it with her and she was like, "I know that church!". She was so happy! I think that was the best part of the day but here's a pretty good list.
Gave out two applications for people who had just moved to the area.
Checked a voter's registration status, showed her the voting location.
Checked a voter's status, found she could not vote next Tuesday in the Asheville Municipal Election because she lived outside city limits. She was disappointed but loved the customer service.
Informed a voter who recently moved here and wanted to vote on Tuesday about her requirements. (We couldn't register her this late but she could go to any Buncombe County Library and same day register.) We Looked up her polling place and gave directions.
Informed another voter just like above.
Advised two voters on polling places.
Strength in numbers, and three people looked better than two. Thanks so much LC for joining us, see you next Tuesday! And four might qualify as a meet up! If you're local please consider a Tuesday, we are booked through November.
I felt really good about today and I would encourage anyone with a spare hour or two and an idea and a place, to give it a try. You won't be sorry. And it might help win an election, you never know.
