DAY 1
I got on the road about 2pm, and arrived in Burlington, IA at about 7:30pm. Rachel (Iowa John's cousin) told me to stop first at the Dem HQ when I got into town. I walked in at 7:30pm, and met Rachel, and several others. I met Chris (I'm staying with this Burlington, IA native's family. When I met him, he was building a wall to block off the phone bank area from the rest of office. he said, "Those dumbfucks get distracted too easily. They start watching tv. They start talking to their friends when they come into the office. Hopefully,
this will put a stop to that dipshit behavior."), Loretta (She's an adult from San Francisco. She's a volunteer who came last week, and has kind of taken over. She's really impressive.), Loretta's fiance (a labor lawyer from SF), and a girl from New Hampshire (She's been with the campaign since the NH primary, and the national campaign sent her here).
After the introductions, Loretta asked me if I could do data entry, then shoved a stack of forms in my hand. The forms were from the phone banking during the day. I had to enter the data in to the VAN (Iowa Democrats Voter Activation Network [http://www.drivethevan.com]). I had to clear bad phonenumbers, and
update absentee voter information (mailed, never received, will mail, need a pickup (Iowa allows couriers to pick up the ballots and deliver them to the county auditor.), or voting at the polls).
We worked until 11pm, then went out to a bar and had frozen pizza and really salty popcorn. I drank Old Style beer. It was good.
I went to sleep at 3:30am.
DAY 2
Came in at 9:30, and got to work at 10am. I picked up where I left off with the data entry. Then at 11am, Michael Gross (Yes, Mr. Keaton, from "Family Ties".) dropped by and gave a pep talk to us. Very consise and forcefull speech about why he's voting for Kerry, and why 3 life-long-Republican he knows (his wife, the man incharge of recruiting international aide in Afghanistan, and one other) are voting for Kerry. I took pictures, shook his hand, and got my picture taken with him.
After Michael Gross left, it was time to canvas. Canvasing was directed at three precincts in Burlington who's Democrats and Independents have low turn out. (3, 4, and 10) I canvased with 3 college freshmen girls until just before 6pm.
We were to knock on the door, ask them if they were voting for Kerry, and if so if they've mailed in their absentee ballot. If not, offer a pickup. If the voter was going to go to the polls, we were to mae sure they knew the polling place. (Some didn't.) If no one was home, then were to leave a flyer listing the polling place and hours.
A little more than half were home. I only got the door slammed in my face about a handful of times. I met one of the ellusive undecided voters. I left literature, and marked her as undecided. She'll be getting a call. :) In case your interested, she was in her mid to late thirties, and of lower economic class. There were somewhere between 5-10 Bush supporters. (The one who expressed why he was voting for Bush, was just as stupid as you'd think. "I'm not voting for Kerry because he hasn't done anything in 20 years." Sadly, I didn't have the talking points memorized, so I responded with, "As four years as president, Bush has lost 3 million jobs, and started a war with just cause in Iraq." "Well at least, he's doin' somthing." "Making us less safe. Alienating our allies. We can't fight the entire world, especially without allies." "The all hated us anyway." Your Bush supporter. They truly do see the world differently. Demonstrably wrong.
[http://www.pipa.org/OnlineReports/Pres_Election_04/html/new_10_21_04.html])
At one house, an 80 year old man opened the door, and just went on a tirade against me. ("I'm getting sick you people. You're always knocking on my door. Last night I got 3 calls in 1 hour last night. I'm tired of it. If you keep this up, I'm not going to vote!" He then got his wife, the one we actually wanted to talk to. As angry as the man was, the woman was just as gracious."I'm sorry ma'am, if we've been disturbing you. It's just that we have a record of you receiving an absentee ballot, and we need to find out if you've mailed it, or need it picked up, or if you need a ride to the polls, or anything. This election is incredibly important, and I can't stress enough how absolutely vital we make sure every voter for John Kerry gets his or her ballot cast." "I know. Don't mind him, he gets rowlled up easily. They came by and picked it up yesterday." "Thank you ma'am. We'll take you off the list."As I walked off, her husband yelled, "DON'T COME BACK!". I yelled back, with a smile, "WE WON'T!".
Whenever we met someone who sent back a vote for Kerry, we gave them a button that red "I've alredy VOTED Kerry", and told them to make sure everyone they know voted for Kerry Tuesday.
Some people said they didn't get the ballot they requested. (One woman, got a card requesting an absentee ballot, and never sent it in. (Duh!)) If they didn't have their ballot, we told them that they would probably need to vote at the polls, and if they were old, we asked if they needed a ride. At one house, a woman was living with her elderly parents. She had voted, but her parents never received their ballot. They were all Kerry
supporters, and she was very concerned, because her parents always voted absentee because it was hard for them to get out. I told her that we could arrange a ride, if needed, and told her to help us make sure that her parents voted, and that everyone she knew voted for Kerry. I told her, we needed her help, and we really need her parents at the polls. She said, "I know. I know. That's why I'm so worried.".
Well it's 10:45pm, and I've got more people to mark off the call/canvas list, because they've already voted.
When I get back, I'll try to remember to put all these dispatches on the web with photos.
Remember, Jonathan's Super Lucky Fantastic Electoral Vote Count Metapoll is available at
http://www.cs.siu.edu/~jkoren/electoral_vote.html.
Our friend Justin's sick retelling of Michael Gross's speech:
"With Bush's refusal to support stem cell research, he killed Superman. Now he's trying to kill my son Alex. And Alex is a Republican. If Bush is going to be killing Republicans, just think what he'll do to Democrats."
ADDENDUMS FOR DAYS 1 & 2
New Hampshire Girl's name is Sarah.
I was told that the VAN is a nationwide database, but for some reason it appears here as only being IDP.
Day 2's beer was Pabst Blue Ribbon. I had it at Chris's house. It's not as good as Old Style. Now I need to do is track down some Stag beer.
Nov 1 and 2 are supposed to be cold and rainy. It's disappointing because for two reasons. First, bad weather dampens turn out. Second, I haven't taken any pictures of the city. I need to take some of some of the areas I've been canvasing, and with dreary weather, the pictures will suck.
Some parts I've been in are filled with shitty houses. One place on my list said it was a residence, but the place looked abandoned. Of course the abandoned looking building next door actually did have someone living in it, so... Also, it seems like everyone in that part of town has at least one dog. Some have two or three.
When I arrived on Day 1, Rachel was so incredibly happy that she got to pay me. (I have no idea when or how much. All I did was fill out a form.) The sad part is, she's not allowed to pay staff, but she can pay volunteers. Apparently the distiction between "staff" and "volunteer" is, if you've consistently volunteered for a long time, you're now considered "staff". This is a pretty shitty system.
When I was given the tour, Rachel showed me a room attached to "the war room" labeled "staff only". It had a mattress on the floor. Apparently there was a time when someone slept in the office, but not since I've been here. That person's grooming kit is still in the bathroom. I've got a picture of it.
On Day 2, someone printed up "Iowa 7" shirts. They're royal blue with the state outline on the front, and in a big typewritter font (It's not courier. This font is more thick-thin-thick.) is the number seven. They're really popular, and there's a waiting list for them. I'm not on it, because I haven't really done anything. Someone else deserves it more. I'll just take a bumper sticker and an "I'm volunteering for John Kerry" button someone made up that has the Iowa outline on it.
Our goal for GOTV on election day is just over 3400 infrequent Democrats/new registers. These people have said they're voting for Kerry, and they've either said they're voting at the polls, or dropping off their absentee ballot at the polls. (Why the hell would you vote absentee, if you're going to go the poll anyway?) Hopefully we can make it.
Supposably the increase of dem registrations have completely outstripped the increase of rep registrations by an order of magnitude. Something like 200% to 30%. I don't know if I belive it it's that much, but hopefully. I do belive that dem new registrations significantly outnumber rep new registrations, because people don't get off their ass to say "Feelin' fine.". There was apparently massive registation drives in Iowa. Now if only we get all those new voters to the polls. (I also belive that a significant portion of those new registrations were probably just to make people go away.)
On election day, there will be someone at the courthouse phoning back actual counts to the party, and possibly the local HQ. I'm sure a large amount of volunteers will be at the HQ watching the national results come in. I have no idea if anything is really planned. Hopefully someone will bring some good food, lunch here tends to be very hit and miss. Day 2 was lunch meet sandwiches (a very good classic), but Day 3's was these wierd ham salad on toritia sandwiches. The sucked. I eventually had lunch/dinner at Arby's.
DAY 3
This morning I got certified to be an official ballot courier for Des Moines county. This means that I can pick up absentee ballots from voters and deliver them to the courthouse. This is a win-win for us and the voter. We banked a vote, and the voter doesn't get any more calls or door knocks from us. :)
During the the day I canvased more. We're heavily canvasing in precincts with a high proportion of infrequent democratic voters. These are defined as registered democrats who have voted in less than three of the last general elections, and have attended one or less democratic caucuses. Demographically these are either young voters, or the poor. Suprise suprise.
Today canvasing I came across two nonvoters. One wasn't registered because "it don't matter". I didn't even bother talking to him, since "it don't matter" if I do. The other nonvoter, was a white male, early 30s with two young children, wearing a Rick Flair t-shirt. He said he wasn't voting for either, because he didn't like either canidate. He said the last guy he voted for was Clinton, but this time he wasn't. Yes, he thought it was an important election. Yes, he thought his vote would count and matter, but he just wasn't going to. He didn't want either canidate. I talked to him for 15-20 minutes. It was great conversation. We talked about mideast politics, we talked about the economy, we talked about the invasion. He thought WMD was a convient excuse for the war, but thought Saddam was a threat to the region. Not us, just the mideast. He thought Saddam supported terrorism, but not 9/11. He didn't think the economy was great, but he just didn't think either one would improve the situation. That was his position in a nutshell, he only wanted to vote for someone who he belived in. He didn't belive in either, and didn't think either would change the country. In the end, I gave him a pamphlet, and told him where to vote. He won't.
I also met a 75 year old Nader supporter. He wanted a third party to be established. He's liberal. Thinks the country is going in the wrong direction. We agreed on all the issues. We agreed Bush was a liar and needed to be removed, but insisted on voting for Nader. I told him how if there's only 5 voters, 2 for Bush, 1 for Kerry, 1 for Nader, and 1 for Cobb, Bush wins, even though the majority can't stand the guy. I lied and told him I voted for Nader, but I changed because it's just too important this year. I told him that we were on the same side, he sort of agreed, but refused to join. When I got back I flagged him for a visit from the highly perssuasive disabled Korean war vet. If only we had a highly perssasive WWII vet... I doubt it, but I think he's worth a visit.
Tonight I phonebanked, and managed to get two ballot pickups. HUZZAH! And one nonvoter. Fuck.
Now I'm doing data entry from today's canvasing and phonebanking.
Election Day's plan was unveiled to all the volunteers today. Each precinct has a team. A list of infrequent voters is being distributed to each precinct. Each team has set of poll watchers that will take shifts marking off the infrequent voters if/when they show up at the polls. Their second job is to make that if someone is challenged at the polls, that the challenged voter is gets a provisional ballot. (Iowa allows EVERYONE to receive a provisional ballot. Even if you're not listed as registered, or are at the wrong precinct.) There is one runner for each precinct that will go out and drive people to the polls if needed. (FYI: Iowa also allows voters to cast their ballots from their cars.) The rest of the team are canvasers, that will knock on doors. At 2pm and at 5pm, the canvasers' lists will be updated with the poll watchers' lists. The canvasers will then revist those homes. At 5pm, the precinct captains will relieve the poll watchers. The precinct capatins will be incharge of making sure as many people as possible are on the polling place premises before the polls close at 9pm. They must be prepared to fight with the Republican poll watchers to make sure everyone gets a vote.
On Election Day, I'll be an at-large runner.
A word about defectors: The few we have (it's in the low tens), tend to be in their early 30s. Fuck.
A word about non-voters: I think those on the call sheets may be liars. Right now I have a "Def Kerry" from 10/28 and no on 10/31 it's "Def Bush". God the Iowians must hate us.
DAY 4
I canvased all day today. We only asked two questions. If they are going to vote for Kerry, and if so, if they knew where their polling place was.
I went to a nursing home. An employee said that someone from the auditors office along with a dem and a repub had everyone vote last week. The dem sure as hell wasn't one of our guys.
I went to the middle class and upper middle class part of town. They also have dogs, but their dogs run free. At one house their high school age daughter came home from school while I was standing outside. The house had a Kerry sign, so I shoved the polling place info in her hand and said, "Signs don't mean shit! Get yer ass to the polls!" She laughed.
In the past few days I've used the words "sir" and "ma'am" more than all of my previous life. Of course, that's because I never worked in the service industry.
Rumor is that we're up in the polls. My metapoll thinks so too. Unfortunately the case has been that when we're up, volunteers dry up. I passed some old man on the street outside the HQ today. He said with a smile, "We're up now!". I said, "Don't slackoff!".
Today I get to leave early. It's just before 10pm, and we've ran out of things to do at about 9:30. The calm before the storm if you will.
Of course I have to go in at 5am tomorrow.
ADDENDUMS FOR DAYS 3 & 4
There was no Day 3 beer.
At about 2-3am, Chris and I thought we heard footsteps in the HQ after everyone had left. We went room to room with a shovel and a broomstick, but didn't find anything. Nothing like hearing spooky noises in an old building Halloween night. :)
Today (Day 4) the large "Kerry-Edwards: A Strong America" sign is missing from the wall. Ghosts. Gotta be ghosts.
It started raining sometime around midnight day 3, and it rained all through the night of day 4. Not hard rain, it's mainly light to heavy misting. It stopped at about 10pm on day 4.
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