I just returned to KY after a trip to volunteer for Obama in Greenville, SC. What a fantastic experience!
A friend and I travelled to SC early Sunday morning and were able to canvas both Sunday and Monday. I was very impressed with the office in Greenville. Lots of people in constant motion! As I understand it, the area is definitely on the conservative side but also has a large African American population. One of the local organizers there told me that on Saturday (the day before we arrived) they had had 203 volunteers show up at the headquarters ready to hit the streets, and that they were able to identify over 700 new supporters that day. Amazing!
Over the course of two days, we covered two separate areas. The first area we covered was low income, with the demographic largely AA. We knocked around a hundred doors that day, and though only about a third of the people answered, our response was fantastic. I think we talked to one undecided and one Hillary supporter ALL DAY. Also, I could not believe how informed and motivated the voters were! Not once did we have to tell anyone where their precinct was, they were fired up and ready to go vote! I know that if I were to walk around my neighborhood here in KY, I would be surprised if even half knew where they were supposed to vote! So that really struck me.
The second day, MLK jr. day, we were assigned to another area, this one clearly a higher income area that was also predominantly AA. We had fewer people answering the door. I assume many had to work even on the holiday. Again, we got a wonderful response from alomst everyone. We talked to fewer people, and ran into only one undecided. She was a 71 yr old white lady who was absolutley torn between all 3 top Democratic candidates! The best part of talking to her was that she mentioned how impressed she was that Obama had been able to actually turn out the youth vote in the earlier primaries. "It's about damn time", she said! However, she seemed to bring up Edwards over and over in the conversation so I tend to think she'll vote for him. I wish I could call her after Saturday and ask!
The Obama Headquarters in Greenville was filled with such friendly and hard working people, it was so great to see. I can't wait to see the results of all thier work on Saturday!
The only downside to the trip was that we had to leave Monday, and Obama spoke there at Furman University on Tuesday. It was so hard for us to leave without seeing him speak. Next time!