So far I think this is my best Fourth of July ever. I spent the morning registering new voters at the Caldwell Parade in Orange County. I got to feel patriotic and I got to see a great small town parade. Fun!
We had four volunteers including the organizer, a far cry from the registration drives I've done in Durham where there are dozens of people. But four was plenty for this event. The other three all had tons of political experience -- for instance there was a couple who had met at the 1984 national convention in San Francisco, and the wife was the former chair of the Mecklenberg County Democratic Party -- and then there was me. Well you don't need a lot of experience to ask people if they're registered to vote.
Everyone was so nice! I think it was partly because they were sitting and watching a parade, not rushing to go to the grocery store or catch a bus whatever. Also I think the small town location had a lot to do with the general level of friendliness. Everyone smiled and was polite, and lots of people seemed genuinely happy to talk to me. I had a great conversation with a lady who told me she was 75 years old and she had voted in every election since she turned 18. And she didn't want praise for it because it was nothing more than her civic duty. And she didn't understand people who complained about the state of the nation but didn't even vote. And she probably would have had a lot more to say but I had to keep moving up the line. Which was too bad, I would have liked to talk to her longer.
I got four registrations, half the total for the group! That was a nice ego boost because last time S. registered 6 people and I only registered one. And at the time I thought I must be really bad at this. So it was nice to have a better day today. I also gave out two forms for someone to take home. They don't like us to do that because the form is so much less likely to get filled out if you don't do it on the spot. But I think these will get filled out. It was a woman who had just moved, and asked me a bunch of questions so she was clearly engaged. And she couldn't fill out the form today because they were building their house and it hadn't been assigned an address yet. She said they were expecting to get an address within the month and she wanted forms for herself and her husband.
I only talked to one hostile person all day, and it was an honest to goodness Prairie Muffin! The novelty of meeting one in person was worth her relatively mild meanness. I shouldn't even have approached them: a family with tons of kids, all the women & girls wearing long "Little House on the Prairie" style dresses and all women over 13 wearing head coverings of homespun white cloth. I think it's a safe to assume that group is probably not going to vote for Obama.
But it's a nonpartisan registration drive, and I was talking to everyone, so I asked them if they were registered to vote. The oldest woman was the only one who talked to me and she said she wasn't sure. I asked her when was the last time she voted (because if it's been many years then she might have been purged from the rolls and have to re-register). She looked at me sourly for a moment and then said "I don't want to talk about voting!" Okay sorry to bother you, have a nice day! That's really the only thing to say at that point.
The best part of the day was that I remembered to put on sunscreen before I left. And two of the other volunteers (the couple who are big-time activists) gave me a bottle of water since I had forgotten to bring one. So I feel much less wiped out than last time. Still, it's time to enjoy a well-deserved nap I think. Or maybe a movie. I've got one on the DVR with Jimmy Stewart and Rosalind Russell. That sounds good.
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