coco_b and I decided to drive up to New Hampshire today to volunteer in Salem for Barack Obama. I was really reluctant, but Corinna felt that since there wasn’t much to do here in Massachusetts to help him win, but NH is still up in the air, and even though it’s a small state, every state counts.. So I sucked it up, we woke up at 8am and drove to Salem to meet at the campaign’s field office. After a little primer on how to approach people, we were given our list of 80 addresses and sent on our way. It took a little while to build up the stones to really start doing it, but we just dove in and started knocking. Turns out, not many people were actually home… As to be expected, there were also a fair number of people who just refused to talk, although not a single person was rude to us. For the most part, the people we encountered either politely told us they weren’t interested in speaking, or that they already supported one of the candidates.. We did encounter a few undecided voters, and we gave them the rundown and some literature. I have no idea if we swayed them our way, but they seemed receptive.
At the end of the day, we ended up only doing 69 of the 80 addresses, as we ran out of steam and out of time. When we turned in our packet, we were unsure how it would be received, it seemed like we only actually talked to a handful of people (maybe 20/69 tops, and 10 of them politely refused to talk). This seemed like nothing to us, but the organizer though it was great that we made it through 69and with our final tally report. Before talking to him were a little let down, but once we thought about it, our opinion turned around… Of course there would be a bunch of people not home on a Saturday afternoon.. And of course there’d be plenty of people who didn’t want to talk to anyone at their front door, regardless of what they were pimping…
It was tiring and a bit intimidating, but at the end of the day we felt good about volunteering and actually putting something other than our money where our mouth has been…
The Weathervane in Salem NH is one of my fav places to eat fried seafood.
Im not surprised people didnt open the door – Salem is a serious hole. Nothing but tattoo studios crumbling since MA made them legal.
However good for you for going out and doing something.
Yay! Man, good work. I tried phone calling for NARAL (a cause I believe in much more than any candidate) once. I short-circuited after two calls.
I could never make calls like that, mostly because I’m the first person to brusquely say “Not Interested” and hang up at any kind of telemarketing call (if I somehow ignore my caller id and pick up in the first place, which I rarely do). Corinna volunteered to call but quickly regretted it, making herself ill with the though of actually having to do it. She tried a few times but generally hated it…
I can honestly say that there is no chance I would have done this if she hadn’t proposed it; I was really going to support her more than Obama. But I feel good about the work we did, regardless of it’s actual effectiveness..
Oh, and NARAL++
Welcome to the Wide World of Canvassing
Congrats on breaking your cherry! It is not an easy racket, and takes some serious gumption. Anybody who can carry their weight and a clipboard is worth their salt in my book… then again after 4 years of grassroots campaigning, I may be a bit biased ;)
Either way, keep fighting the good fight. You will never be the same “door” again.