Canvassing

I spent a few hours canvassing on election day.  Did a little door-knocking in my own neighborhood and then made some calls from the back deck. 

My rough script was “Hi, this is David LaMotte calling and I’m volunteering for the Obama campaign, just checking in to make sure you got a chance to vote and don’t need a ride or anything.  You know that polls will be open until 7:30, right?”

That went pretty well.  Only one person sounded vaguely annoyed, and she was polite anyway.  Almost everyone I reached had already voted, and many of them shared that they had voted for Obama.  A few knew who I was from my music, and that was fun.

I was calling from a list of registered Democrats provided by the campaign office, so I addressed people by name when I called. The funniest thing, though, was the young woman who softly responded to me with “David, do you know who this is?”  

I looked back at the page and said “Lacey! Oh, Nate’s Lacey!”  I was talking to my nephew’s girlfriend.  She passed the phone to him and he said hi.  

Small world indeed.  I guess the aphorism is true after all.  All politics is local.  Very local.