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Oct. 19th, 2008
More Canvassing
Oct. 19th, 2008 09:26 pmYesterday, I did more canvassing. This time, they sent us to a United Auto Workers headquarters in Jainesville, WI, which I thought was a little bit unusual because, in the past, we've only gone to local offices for the campaign. They targeted Jainesville because an auto factory there announced that it was closing its doors earlier than expected. The plant was supposed to stay open until the spring of 2009, but, with the downturn in the economy, they're now going to close December 23rd. Doesn't that suck? "Enjoy your holidays! You're now out of a job!"
This time, I teamed up with a lady who was a precinct captain in her suburb. She had canvassing down to a T since she's done it so often. I think I learned how to organize walks a bit better so that they go faster, in fact. The other girl who came with us was a student at a community college. She was kind of soft-spoken, and I heard that, after we split up to cover opposite sides of the street, she didn't speak up very much. Oh well. This was her first canvassing trip. I'm hoping she'll be more confident if she goes on subsequent ones.
As I mentioned in Twitter, I actually had someone slam a door in my face during this trip. I told her my name and that I was a volunteer for the Obama campaign. She looked at me with this expression of utter disgust, said something to the effect of "Oh please," and slammed the door. Very rude, but I was amused nonetheless. :)
Before we were sent out, we were told that there was another group working in the same area. I wonder if she had been visited multiple times that week and was fed up. Fortunately, we ran into a pair that were going door to door. (I wonder how they were related to the campaign because their forms looked slightly different than ours). We compared addresses to make sure that we weren't visiting the same house more than once in order to avoid pissing the residents off. If we had the same address, one person went to the door and the information was shared with the others. It wasn't always a perfect system. Part of our turf must have overlapped yet another set of canvassers, because the two ladies that canvassed the other side of the block got yelled at. The guy who answered screamed at them to "get their heads out of their asses." (Geez...talking about shooting the messenger!) Anyhow, they didn't stick around to explain the mix up to him. They left quickly because he was shouting and they didn't want to further provoke his ire. I hope those two groups do a better job of coordinating their canvassing trips in the future to avoid pissing the locals off.
Overall, I think there were more Obama supporters than McCain ones, and surprisingly, I ran into a number of undecideds. When we were finished, we had lunch at the A&W, dropped our clipboards off, and headed back to Chicago.
Out of the four canvassing trips I've taken, I've driven for three of them, mostly because I have a nav system and that makes finding the office and the neighborhoods we're assigned to much easier. I think that, if I go next Saturday, I'm going to see if someone else wants to drive. I'll just use my iphone to figure out directions. (I suck at reading maps...so wish me luck). When I got back today, I was completely wiped from driving approximately three hours. Next Sunday, I have my niece's baptism, and I don't want to be a complete zombie for it.
Oh...I'm also coming down with a cold, which might explain some of the exhaustion. I have been sneezing my butt off today.
Today,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
soulofajedi posted a link to this story. Yes, I was in Racine when this happened, but I was on the opposite end of town. We were told about this before we headed up to Jainesville, and reminded that we should keep an eye out and if anything looked sketchy, to mark the address as inaccessible and not put ourselves in harms way. I heard a slightly different version of events though. The pair had originally gone to a back door and were held up. Now, when I was at the Racine office last week, the mayor of Racine told the audience full of volunteers that some houses are split up into two or three apartments, and they should make sure they "knock on all the doors" to get the word out. However, during previous canvassing trips, we were told to stay out of apartment buildings and, if we had to go into an enclosed porch, we should mark the home as inaccessible and not bother. I wonder if, they had gone to a back door either because the first door wasn't accessible or they thought that there were two separate units. If that was the case, the guy must have thought they were trespassing and, as the article said, they were, "forcibly escorted...from his property." I'm guessing that this was the case, but I don't know for sure. During all of my trips, I only visit front doors, and I don't do anything that could possibly be construed as trespassing. That includes walking across lawns. I stick to the driveway and walkways only. Of course, then again, when dealing with the public like that, you're bound to run into a few yahoos. And I must admit, that some things that have been happening during this campaign have been somewhat disturbing. In short, you're seeing some of the racists coming out of the woodwork.
This time, I teamed up with a lady who was a precinct captain in her suburb. She had canvassing down to a T since she's done it so often. I think I learned how to organize walks a bit better so that they go faster, in fact. The other girl who came with us was a student at a community college. She was kind of soft-spoken, and I heard that, after we split up to cover opposite sides of the street, she didn't speak up very much. Oh well. This was her first canvassing trip. I'm hoping she'll be more confident if she goes on subsequent ones.
As I mentioned in Twitter, I actually had someone slam a door in my face during this trip. I told her my name and that I was a volunteer for the Obama campaign. She looked at me with this expression of utter disgust, said something to the effect of "Oh please," and slammed the door. Very rude, but I was amused nonetheless. :)
Before we were sent out, we were told that there was another group working in the same area. I wonder if she had been visited multiple times that week and was fed up. Fortunately, we ran into a pair that were going door to door. (I wonder how they were related to the campaign because their forms looked slightly different than ours). We compared addresses to make sure that we weren't visiting the same house more than once in order to avoid pissing the residents off. If we had the same address, one person went to the door and the information was shared with the others. It wasn't always a perfect system. Part of our turf must have overlapped yet another set of canvassers, because the two ladies that canvassed the other side of the block got yelled at. The guy who answered screamed at them to "get their heads out of their asses." (Geez...talking about shooting the messenger!) Anyhow, they didn't stick around to explain the mix up to him. They left quickly because he was shouting and they didn't want to further provoke his ire. I hope those two groups do a better job of coordinating their canvassing trips in the future to avoid pissing the locals off.
Overall, I think there were more Obama supporters than McCain ones, and surprisingly, I ran into a number of undecideds. When we were finished, we had lunch at the A&W, dropped our clipboards off, and headed back to Chicago.
Out of the four canvassing trips I've taken, I've driven for three of them, mostly because I have a nav system and that makes finding the office and the neighborhoods we're assigned to much easier. I think that, if I go next Saturday, I'm going to see if someone else wants to drive. I'll just use my iphone to figure out directions. (I suck at reading maps...so wish me luck). When I got back today, I was completely wiped from driving approximately three hours. Next Sunday, I have my niece's baptism, and I don't want to be a complete zombie for it.
Oh...I'm also coming down with a cold, which might explain some of the exhaustion. I have been sneezing my butt off today.
Today,
soulofajedi posted a link to this story. Yes, I was in Racine when this happened, but I was on the opposite end of town. We were told about this before we headed up to Jainesville, and reminded that we should keep an eye out and if anything looked sketchy, to mark the address as inaccessible and not put ourselves in harms way. I heard a slightly different version of events though. The pair had originally gone to a back door and were held up. Now, when I was at the Racine office last week, the mayor of Racine told the audience full of volunteers that some houses are split up into two or three apartments, and they should make sure they "knock on all the doors" to get the word out. However, during previous canvassing trips, we were told to stay out of apartment buildings and, if we had to go into an enclosed porch, we should mark the home as inaccessible and not bother. I wonder if, they had gone to a back door either because the first door wasn't accessible or they thought that there were two separate units. If that was the case, the guy must have thought they were trespassing and, as the article said, they were, "forcibly escorted...from his property." I'm guessing that this was the case, but I don't know for sure. During all of my trips, I only visit front doors, and I don't do anything that could possibly be construed as trespassing. That includes walking across lawns. I stick to the driveway and walkways only. Of course, then again, when dealing with the public like that, you're bound to run into a few yahoos. And I must admit, that some things that have been happening during this campaign have been somewhat disturbing. In short, you're seeing some of the racists coming out of the woodwork.