The drive back to NC was not too bad. The rain slowed me down but there was hardly any traffic. I stopped at Ikea for a few things. They are the best deal going on crazy cool fabric. Also got a new bed for Jane, which she refuses to lie on. I guess she misses her flattened down dirty old bed.
In future political volunteering I'd like to do a few things differently. For one thing, this is the second election day I've spent knocking on doors, and have accomplished absolutely zero. Everyone says they've already voted and it ends up feeling like a waste of time. In my limited experience, knocking on doors before election day seems more effective. Although the people at the party office seemed really worked up about it. I may try to read up on how much it really helps, and maybe look into other options for election day activities.
Also I'm not sure about the phone bank. People seemed so angry about the flood of calls.
It seems like it would be better to start earlier and try to establish a connection with people, rather than hammering them with a dozen phone calls in the days before the election. But again, the people in charge were convinced it was the best approach. And Cardin won, so who am I to argue?
it might feel (and be) better to drive people to the polls on election day. another friend who was canvassing in NJ went door to door in the days just before, then was posted at a bus station the day before, then he and his kids all drove people to the polls the day of, and i think overall it was a good experience for them.
yeah I was thinking about that. Either driving people to the polls, or maybe working for a campaign up until election day and then on the day working for an independant poll monitoring group.
This might have been a particularly bad year for human phone banking, because both parties really ratched up the robo-dialing in crucial districts. The Rethugs deliberately went beyond "saturation" to "harrassment" levels of calling, including in Maryland.
I think it would be utterly cool to be driven to the polls in UMJ, so definitely see if you can arrange to be a driver. The campaigns probably want locals as drivers, though, and probably in bigger vehicles.
That's a good point about the robo-calls. I'm appalled by that Republican dirty trick of bombarding people with robo-calls that sounded like they were from Democratic candidates. Although it's not as bad as sending letters to legally registered Latino voters "warning" them that they would be deported if they tried to vote. How can they live with themselves if that's the only way they can hope to win?
I read on Daily Kos that the RNCC might owe massive fines for the robo-calls to people on the Do Not Call list, but I don't see how, since political calls are exempt from the DNC list. Also, I think the FEC should stop monkeying around with fines and start putting people in jail for voter harrassment & intimidation. Fines are no deterrent; they have so much money they can treat fines as an operating expense.
A few weeks ago I got an email announcement asking for drivers for the Casey campaign. They provided vans and paid $100 for the day. I didn't respond because I have such a terrible sense of direction, driving in an unknown area I'd probably have spent the day getting vans full of voters lost. And then I didn't end up going to PA anyway.
In 2008 I'll almost surely be here in NC since Dole is up for re-election. I think it would be cool to be a driver!