Seven days left! Count ’em! For those of us who have merely blogged about it, put up signs, sent money, prayed and worried, let’s take a page out of a REAL volunteer’s book. The reader known as “Donatella” has been hitting the battleground state of Pennsylvania every weekend for the last couple of months. I asked her to say a few words to motivate our fat, lazy asses. There’s still time left to join her and the others right up until Election Day. Do it for yourself. Do it for Barack. For God’s sake, do it for our country!
What does your day consist of? Phone calls? Knocking on doors? Do you have a choice?
I have done two types of campaigning activities for Obama, registering voters and canvassing registered voters door to door in North Philadelphia. Since voter registration is over, I have concentrated recently on going door to door and matching residents versus the list of voters, first checking the lists accuracy, then assessing their interest in Obama, enlisting volunteers and assessing the needs of the voters, i.e. those needing rides to the polls. I have also been providing information about things like absentee ballots, providing info on polls, hours, etc. The day is organized into “shifts” — there are three 10 -1, 2-5 and 5-8. I usually do one or two shifts. This Saturday was a marathon (though this is not asked); I worked for 6 hours outside. We are paired with another worker and this has been great fun, teaming with others, often Brooklyn neighbors! This is not the only form of volunteering, however. They need people to work the phone banks as well as to do data entry. These voluminous canvassing sheets to record the accurate addresses of registered voters, interest levels,needs are refined with each canvassing session and require people to enter into databases and then people to follow up with phone calls. It is remarkably organized and recognized nationally — the extraordinary ground organization of Obama.
They really need people to work next weekend and if possible Monday and Election day. There will be very organized campaigns to ride people to polls and to call people all day to get them to get out to vote. They will even get feedback from the polls on those whohave voted (not WHO for but what registered voters turn up). Using that data, the workers will call people and exhort them to vote (or give them a ride). Also, they need people willing to drive people to the polls as well.
Have you encountered angry McCain supporters or even nasty Obama supporters (no such thing)?
Well, the demographics of North Philly where I have worked consist of two groups: African Americans who live in the neighborhood and students who attend Temple University. Many of the students are voting by absentee ballots so there aren’t many registered voters we are pursuing among that group, although there are some. Most of the students are Obama supporters, but I have spoken to a number of them who come from Western PA or other more working class areas, which are Obama resistant. It is interesting to talk to them because they worry about taxes (will they be able to continue school if their parents get zapped?) and seem to express the same doubts that many people have expressed about Obama, but most are for him. Teenagers often operate with the framework they get from their parents. One young kid told me that his father worried about having his guns taken away from him (big hunter from Western PA) but finally decided on Obama since he thought that he would have better solutions for the economy.
The other group of people are the African American people who have lived in the area for a long time. North Philly is a depressed place and although nobody I know was bothered in any way, there are a lot of walking wounded there, very poor people, lots of abandoned buildings. But like our neighborhoods in Brooklyn, core of the place has fantastic people, active churches, close neighborhoods, Philly baseball fans and rapid Obama supporters. One feels rather than trying to convince anyone to vote for Obama, one feels that one is preaching to the choir. The challenge we try to explain, is to make sure that every human being in their family, on the block, every friend actually gets out the door, rain, shine, tornado, hurricane, No’Easter, anything. We are aiming for 90-95% turnout. Being for Obama and not voting is useless. We tell them that PA is a key state, that Obama is up in the polls, but that can disappear because McCain is hitting other parts of the state HARD. Just because everyone in the world you know is for Obama, it isn’t the whole universe. To offset the western part of the state, they need to vote. We give them information so that they don’t have any confusion or problems when they get there.
Any funny stories?
I had a bullhorn to get people to register and kids came from everywhere wanting to yell “register to vote’ into it. An older one took it and started singing – took a bit to get it back.
A North Philly volunteer from the hood and I tried to get keep this volunteer from Manhattan from getting killed one day. He was an extremely fem guy and very aggressive “didn’t want to take no for an answer” He was hassling guys who told them they were felons and couldn’t vote and he would argue with them that they were wrong, wanted their addresses,etc. Because he wasn’t used to inner city neighborhoods (hello?), he wanted to record this exciting experience and took his camera. He ate junk food throughout the day, including a big bag of pink, blue and green popcorn. He lived through the end of the day. The junk food could have killed him, though.
You’ve been going to Philly for a couple of months now. Do you see a difference between then and now?
This neighborhood has been for Obama, but what I feel now is a palpable excitement, a thrill, so many people wanting to participate, to volunteer, so many people ready to celebrate something so incredibly exciting in their lives as we get close. Some are hatching plans for victory parties. One area where I was yesterday was so tight knit that they were going to make sure everyone voted. Everybody greeted us with warmth.
Does it seem like voters will actually get to the polls?
The campaign is leaving nothing to chance as you can see by what they plan to do on Election Day. This is now the most crucial aspect and the campaign is trying to cover every possibility.
Is sign up at mybarack.com?
Yes, you can sign up at mybarack.com or if one has any interest in this neighborhood I am describing, they can contact Aleah Phillips at 267-972-6559. The address of the North Philly office is 2221 North Broad Street (between Dauphin and Susquehanna).
What will you be doing on election night?
On Election night, I will be hanging out at home, hopefully with some friends, drinking wine and staying up all night to watch the returns. I actually remember November 1960 when it was clear that Kennedy was going to win, I was a kid and everybody was thrilled. I felt like all was great with the world and went outside to look at the stars.
I think I might actually feel that again.
