Persistence in Walking Precincts on Election Day

Written by: Frances Cleveland on Nov 14, 2006 3:25 PM EST

After doing a lot of MoveOn calls and acting as Precinct Captain for my mostly democratic area, I decided that on election day I wanted to directly help get out the vote on a "critical" voting district. So I signed up to walk precincts for McNerney against Pombo. I  went around with my walk list of likely McNerney voters, door hangers with polling location, and a friendly smile. 

The highlight of the day for me personally was when I knocked at one door, and a very grumpy older man asked me why I was bothering him - he was in the middle of cooking and didn't want the food to burn. I explained that I was there to urge him to vote. He snarled back that he couldn't vote. On gently questioning why (he was one my walk list as a voter), he irritatedly stated he hadn't gotten the right paper work sent to him. He had even asked for an absentee ballot but it had never arrived. But he wanted to get those damned Republicans out of there because they were destroying the country. I said that I would check with the poll workers. I did that, and found that indeed he was able to vote there. I went back and greeted him with "I've got great news for you! You can indeed vote!" He broke into a huge grin and said "That's just terrific!! I don't mind if my food burns! Where do I go? Now I can help beat those bastards!"

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