Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:05 AM

Not everyone has been happy to see me, as I traipse about, canvassing

On Friday, I walked onto a property as two men came out of the house, and one immediately yelled, I'm not interested

But I increasingly pretend to be hard of hearing, so I managed somehow not to understand him and explained I was a volunteer offering early voting information, until I finally ascertained that the person on my list had moved away. Then I apologized for bothering the poor fellow and went to knock the door across the street

His ire was up, though, and he shouted at my retreating back that he was tired of phone calls and tired of folk on his doorstep

When I was done with the next house, I headed back to my car. Across the street, the second man was coming down the driveway towards me

Gobama! he yelled, flashing a thumbs-up at me

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7 replies	Author	Time	Post
Not everyone has been happy to see me, as I traipse about, canvassing (Original post)	struggle4progress	Nov 2012	OP
I felt like a little spoiled brat doing GOTV in Madison WI	mucifer	Nov 2012	#1
durham nc is blue! blue! blue! in the great republican sweep of 2010, our democratic candidates	struggle4progress	Nov 2012	#3
Thank you for your determination.	kstewart33	Nov 2012	#2
I had good experiences canvassing: due to Sandy, a polling location had changed	femmedem	Nov 2012	#4
that drives me crazy	InsultComicDog	Nov 2012	#6
Situations like that are when you go with a friend	TlalocW	Nov 2012	#5
Since I had half a dozen Obama buttons on my sweatshirt and had just flashed a VOTE EARLY clipboard	struggle4progress	Nov 2012	#7

Response to struggle4progress (Original post)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:09 AM

mucifer (8,537 posts)

1. I felt like a little spoiled brat doing GOTV in Madison WI

That was almost as fun as Gary, IN 4 years ago. Going to very blue parts of a state and knocking on doors where people are already fired up is just great. I feel bad for people that have lots of difficult experiences. I think the campaign has been spoiling us Chicago people by sending us to fun parts because the President is one of us!

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Response to mucifer (Reply #1)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:15 AM

struggle4progress (71,964 posts)

3. durham nc is blue! blue! blue! in the great republican sweep of 2010, our democratic candidates

won here 65-35 or even 75-25

so my canvassing is almost always a gas

but there's no law people must love canvassers, and so not all do

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Response to struggle4progress (Original post)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:11 AM

kstewart33 (3,071 posts)

2. Thank you for your determination.

Canvassing is hard work and sometimes psychologically hard to take.

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Response to struggle4progress (Original post)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:16 AM

femmedem (2,096 posts)

4. I had good experiences canvassing: due to Sandy, a polling location had changed

so people were universally happy that I was informing them. It gave me a good lead-in before talking about the candidates.

But it was unnerving to learn that two days before the election no one--and I mean not one single person--knew where they were supposed to vote.

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Response to femmedem (Reply #4)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:35 AM

InsultComicDog (1,209 posts)

6. that drives me crazy

It's not just when hurricanes happen, but sometimes they'll move one's polling place and you don't find out until you show up at the wrong spot. Happened to me a couple times.

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Response to struggle4progress (Original post)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:28 AM

TlalocW (8,956 posts)

5. Situations like that are when you go with a friend

And when you meet up with someone belligerent, you hand them a flyer listing out things like, "Old bicycles, advertising signs, etc." explain to them you're pickers, and if he had any of the stuff on the list, you'd love to make him an offer.

TlalocW <--- watches too much history.com

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Response to TlalocW (Reply #5)

Mon Nov 5, 2012, 09:39 AM

struggle4progress (71,964 posts)

7. Since I had half a dozen Obama buttons on my sweatshirt and had just flashed a VOTE EARLY clipboard

at them, it was probably a bit late to pretend to be a knacker or an organ-grinder

But I've done this for years and have never had any real trouble

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