I was a little nervous.
It wasn't my first campaign effort but it's the first since several huge changes in my life. Frankly, I was fairly certain I'd be canvassing--the caller advised I wear comfortable shoes and bring something to drink. No biggie. I've done soliciting before--Boy Scout and orchestra benefit sales, raising money for charities, etc. But, well, I'm not exactly the same person I was when I was a Boy Scout. I'm not exatly a boy anymore, to say the least. And while North King County isn't totally illiberal, things do get markedly more Red-State upon leaving Seattle. So, how would a transsexual fare in helping to get out the vote, up close and personal?
Well, fortunately, that proved not to be a problem.
More, including Jay Inslee's take on moshthevote.com, after this bump.
I showed up about 10 minutes early, after getting a mocha and a bottle of water at the espresso stand across the parking lot. I got to talk to the barrista about Air America, and how Al Franken did his impersonation of Dick Cheney telling bedtime stories to his grandkids. "And, uh, these... 'wolves' get jobs at, er, your elementary school. What's it's name again? Ceder Hill Elementary? Yep. That's where they go. The janitor dispersed the ricin through the... school's ventilation system, and the lunch lady puts it in the, uh, sloppy joes. Everyone's dead. Good night." He was listening to NPR but I think he's going to check out Air America real soon.
I walked into the door, dodged people waiting for signage or assignments, and talked to a nice woman named Elaine, who said she thought I'd be most needed among the canvassers. She directed me to talk to Nicole, who is apparently with Patty Murray's campaign. But she decided I was more needed on the phones, after all.
Most of the numbers I dialed were answered by answering machine or voice mail, so I mainly stuck to a short script reminding people to vote absentee or at their polls on November 2, that absentee ballots must be signed and postmarked by Election Day, and who to call if there were questions or if they needed a ride to the polls. There was a decentl number of people home and who were happy to hear from us, a couple of obvious sleepy-heads picking up and hanging up the phone in their sleep, three apparent pro-Bush calls, and a few anecdotes.
The spookiest call was with the woman who, when I identified myself as calling from the Kerry/Edwards campaign and Washington State Democrats, began this spooky groan of apparent horror, and then she hung up. The rantiest actually came from someone who, while saying he would vote for Kerry and other Democrats, was tired of getting phone calls from Democrats and thought we were in danger of driving "fence-sitters" away with our zeal. But my favorite call was with the guy who said Bush's campaign called him yesterday and he assured them that there was "no way in Hell" he would vote for Bush.
I had completed a couple of pages' worth of numbers when Nicole announced that a new phone list was in the works and would be out soon, and that we were to make calls to a different list, encouraging them to show up for cross-state train rallies. And that was interesting--I talked to many who had been called earlier today and were glad to hear it. The most common excuse for missing the rally was their having already volunteered to work with GOTV and election efforts.
But perhaps the most interesting moment was when I ran into jay Inslee and got to chat with him briefly. I asked him if he had heard about moshthevote.com or Eminem's "Mosh" video. He hadn't, but one of his assistants had. I mentioned how many were going to wear black hoodies on Election Day, and he mentioned he had a black hoodie as well and would wear one this Tuesday. I'll be looking for pictures of him on Election Day.
All in all, this wasn't that radically different from the campaigns I have worked before. The main differences are in using the web to get volunteers and in being able to crunch data better, such as real-time updating of phone lists. But it still felt like the traditional campaigns I've worked before. Anyhow, this was such a positive experience that I'm eager to work with MoveOn tomorrow. I'm still waiting for their email back but once I get home tonight I'll call if I haven't heard. After all, I want to see how MoveOn differs from what I saw on the Party side. This aught to be most interesting.