People with a purpose

She came into the office with her walker at 8:00pm. She was looking for a list of neighbors to call to get out the vote.

Today I probably called at least 60 or 70 people to ask them to volunteer in the final six days before the election. Jennifer is 76 years old and can’t withstand the rigors of door-to-door canvassing. I gave her a call today because she was on our list as an Obama supporter who might be interested in volunteering. When I asked her if she could canvass, she told me that she uses a walker and can’t do it. When I said, how about making phone calls, she said “well, yes, I believe I could do that.” You wouldn’t believe the people I’ve met in the short five days I’ve been here.

It’s not an exaggeration when you hear people say that this campaign is changing the country. It’s changing people. I just got done watching this moving video of Charles, an 86 year-old volunteer in Boulder who recently had the chance to meet Obama:

I haven’t met anyone quite like Charles, but I’ve met so many people that share parts of his story here in Gainesville. People are working so hard that tensions can run high and people get frustrated. People get upset that our data isn’t perfect and we’re calling people who’ve already been called. They get impatient because they’re tired and there aren’t always enough leaders around to explain to all of the volunteers what to do. But it’s the moments that someone shares their story of why they are volunteering that keeps everyone going.

Today two folks from London who have been canvassing for Obama in Philadelphia since June arrived here to help. That’s on top of the many volunteers from Alabama, Texas, and California who have uprooted their lives to work in Gainesville. Yesterday a cheery guy with special needs named Josh came into the office to draw inspirational posters. He reminds us all not to take ourselves too seriously. The leaders in the office have a hard time with that sometimes, working until 2am two out of the first three nights this week and coming in at 9 or before the next day. Most of them are new to activism themselves but have shown a special commitment that caught the eye of the campaign.

These people are all different. They all came here from a different place and have a different story. But all of us share something in common. We’re all ready to take a chance. We were all moved to take a chance, to believe in something greater than ourselves. Listening to Obama’s speeches, these things are almost becoming cliche. But the fundamental fact of it is undeniable. We are in a bad way in this country. Nobody thinks we’re doing okay right now. They’re scared and they’re looking for something. And the thing that people are reaching for that is giving all of us so much hope is not a specific policy or position. It’s a common purpose. It’s a challenge to bring some unity, and comraderie with each other to our lives. That’s happening in this campaign. It’s happening in Gainesville.

Day 2: Gator Country

Yesterday was a full day. I met up with Meesha and Maria, my canvassing cohorts at Sylvia’s house at 10am and left the Obama office at 8pm. With it being homecoming weekend, not many people were answering their doors, but the few that did kept us smiling.

The streets were flooded with thousands of Gator fans wearing blue and orange.

Gainesville is University of Florida. There are 50,000 students and thousands upon thousands of boosters, parents, siblings, alums, and just plain Gator (their sports team) fanatics. It took me about 40 minutes to get to our staging location in the morning because of the traffic. EVERYBODY in the streets was wearing blue and orange Florida Gator apparel. It was out of control. It was even more overwhelming than the cheese-head factor I experienced in my visit up to Green Bay (Packer country) a few years ago.

Many of the Gator fans wore McCain/Palin stickers and one even had a “Gators for McCain/Palin” t-shirt on. I didn’t see many Obama supporters in the streets. The neighborhoods were a different story though.

We went to three different locations yesterday – a mostly-college student apartment complex, a low-income mainly African American apartment complex, and a predominantly black, low-income set of houses off of a main road. I’d guess I knocked on about 70 doors, recruited about 4 or 5 volunteers, got 10-12 people to pledge to vote early, and talked to just one person who isn’t going to vote. Most people either weren’t home or weren’t answering their door. No matter what you’re canvassing for, there are going to be a set of people who just aren’t too happy to talk to you or will not answer the door when they see somebody with a pen and clip board. I guess that’s the breaks when you have people who are used to vacuum salesmen, surveyists, missionaries, and fundraisers. My main purpose for paying them a visit was to tell them the location of their polling place down the street.

In this get out the vote operation, we’re paying a visit to “inactive” voters, “sporatic voters”, and “super sporatic voters” who are for the most part clear Obama supporters. In the last election only 64% of eligible voters actually made it out to vote. The rest were either too busy, ill or disabled, or not inspired. Our job is to bug them, help them, and inspire them enough to close the deal.

After we knocked on our last door as the sun went down, we came back to the office to turn in our paper work. There are a ton of interesting props, posters, and people in that place. Jason got a kick out of this hard-core smiling zombie for Obama.

Zombies for Obama

Gainesville

I arrived here in Gainesville on Thursday night after a full day of travel from San Francisco. I’m here to volunteer with my old friend and community organizer, Jason Fults. I met Jason after college in Philadelphia where we worked with the Student Environmental Action Coalition. For the next eleven days we’ll be working to elect a fellow community organizer, Barack Obama, the next president of the United States.

Yesterday was my first day here in Gainesville knocking on doors and making phone calls. Focusing on turning out Obama supporters for early voting, I spoke with dozens of people as young as 18 and as old as 92. You can taste the enthusiasm in the air for change, but people are cautious. They know that only three Democrats have won the presidency out of the last 10 elections and aren’t taking anything for granted.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I got here. But now I know, every moment I’m in the Obama office, out in the neighborhoods, or on the phones, I’m helping to change the vote totals in Florida. Just two elections ago, this state was decided by only a few hundred votes. There are 150,000 registered voters in Gainesville. Our job as volunteers is to remind people where and how to vote. We emphasize the importance of mailing in their ballot or making the trip to the polls before the early voting cut-off on November 1st. As it gets down to election day, we’ll offer some folks physical rides to the polls. Without this kind of help, thousands of registered Obama supports simply will not vote. We’re in a race against time. Day 2 is coming fast. Time to sleep.