Notes from the Road
With just 13 days left in the election, it is time to pull out all the stops. The campaigns have bought their ads; they have debated their opponents; they have sent out their mailers. Now it is down to the ground game–getting out into the community, knocking on as many doors and calling as many people as you can to help people understand what they need to do to vote (many laws have changed in the last two years!), persuading them to vote and just asking them to vote. Crimson Goes Blue members have been doing just that. Here are some highlights from their canvassing:
Voter Stories from NH Canvassing Front Lines by Lisa Ulrich
While canvassing, it is easy to think like a busy Amazon delivery driver - moving quickly between homes through the briefest of friendly conversations or literature drops. Last weekend, our CGB Connect to Elect Canvassing crews reached out to more than 400 Nashua, New Hampshire households to vote Democratic in the upcoming election. Done. done. done.
Yet, even some of these brief conversations offered more personal insights into voters’ experiences and motivations. Here is a sampling:
The mother of four pigtailed little girls, ages 1-4, bounded out to her yard to request literature to distribute - saying that she is ready to convince her neighbors to vote Democratic in order to protect reproductive rights. A Catholic healthcare worker shared that she too is deeply concerned about reproductive rights. And at age 64, a voter acknowledged that she had only begun voting when she was 50 but that she is especially committed to voting this year to protect voter rights as well.
Notes from Canvassing in Arizona by Felicia Madrigal This week I canvassed in Phoenix, Arizona with fellow CGBers Alice Neuhauser and Wallace Bachman. Here are some voters’ stories:
Wallace helped a Russian-American voter fill out her ballot, using Google Translate to help smooth the conversation. She voted for Dems up and down the ballot!
Alice and I helped a wonderful young Black mother fill out her ballot while her two young children ate supper. Her husband works long hours, and she is getting her teacher’s certificate from a local community college. Public school education, community colleges and affordable healthcare are important issues for her. After she finished her ballot, she told us that this was her and her husband’s first time voting, after they learned from her son’s American History lessons that voters choose their state representatives. They had previously thought that state representatives were appointed. Now they are both confirmed Democratic voters.
A young Asian-American man, who first told me he was too busy to vote in this cycle because his wife is expecting a baby, shared with me that his key issues are education and affordable healthcare. He committed to mail in his ballot and to ensuring that his wife votes too, and he thanked me for getting out there and making sure that people vote.
An 87-year-old lady told us she had survived WW2 in Morocco where both her parents were killed and had voted straight Republican starting in 1960. But she said that in 2016, both she and her daughter have gone straight Democrat.
I could go on with many more encouraging stories. Canvassing is not easy, and we sometimes encounter devoted Republicans who do not realize they are voting against their own interests, but the work is very rewarding.
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