Canvassing Experiences: Good, Bad, Nervous, Freaky

I've been doing GOTV canvassing all day. I've done canvassing in the primary too, and in prior elections. In 2004 my husband and I drove to Jacksonville, Florida to knock on doors, but this year -- wonder of wonders -- Georgia could be a swing state!

My first randomly assigned partner was very nice, but frustrating to work with. He'd never canvassed before. He informed me about every other block that because he was a Big Black Man, everyone would be scared of him when he knocked on their door. Even though we were working a 100% African-American neighborhood. I tried to cheer him up, but I thought he was being a bit of a Nervous Nellie... I mean, I've canvassed with large black men before, and they all had a much more positive outlook to the task.

I did understand his basic point. Even in black neighborhoods, people are going to be more willing to open their door to an Asian woman than they are to a "BBM". It just led to very inefficient canvassing because we couldn't split up and cover different sides of the same street. We had to do all the houses together, and he stood behind me when we knocked on the doors. I was too polite to tell him that mathematically speaking, even if more people opened their doors for me than for him, we were getting worse coverage per hour by not splitting up.

However, we still got a lot of good work done. Among the many who were confident about voting, we encountered a few who seemed lost and confused, gave them the right information and therefore drastically increased the chance that they'll show up on Tuesday.

I empathized with his rather severe racism reaction a bit better after I found out he was originally from Miami. We had a frank talk about Miami for a while driving back, and discovered we had similar reasons for leaving, even though we occupied very different positions in the weird racial hierarchy there.

After lunch, my morning partner left for other activities and I was reassigned with an experienced woman who was easy and fun to work with. Our initial run was super-creepy. We ended up at a semi-abandoned apartment complex. Half the buildings were boarded up. It reminded me of a scene from 28 Days Later. Places like that are where you kind of wish you have a "BBM" along! We had to stick close together here for totally different reasons. Most of the people on our list had already fled this pit of despair. We knocked on one typically filthy door and were answered by a surprising figure: a young white guy with a scraggly goatee, pasty skin and jittery eyes surrounded by massive dark circles. He answered our "Hi, we're with the Obama campaign" by telling us that THIS COUNTRY DID NOT NEED A TERRORIST IN CHARGE, THIS COUNTRY NEEDED A SOLDIER. We said, "OK, bye!" and nervously backed off, regretting having aroused him from chemical stupor. Interrupting people who are high on crack or meth (and/or watching a football game) is always the worst part of canvassing.

The next run was a much more normal neighborhood, and we breezed through the list. Most everyone had early voted. The campaign messages about early voting have been consistent and and have really blanketed Atlanta. Voting in Georgia is so much harder than it should be, but we're doing everything we can to fight against that.

All of us volunteers are pumped about Georgia's chances. If we go blue, it's going to be sweet. Sweet revenge on the politicians who screw up our voter rights, starve our public transportation and schools, keep our air polluted, spread racism, pimp the horrible Fair Tax, and I could go on for a while longer but I won't. Even if Obama doesn't win Georgia, there are a lot of local races where high Democratic turnout is going to make a big difference for my family's long-term quality of life.

More canvassing tomorrow.