My 1st post in the GOTV stories series: http://www.dailykos.com/...
Check out my blog http://racesandredistricting.blogspot.com/
I arrived at 8:45 in the morning for a long day of phone calls for the President at the nearby Obama office. Like last weekend, I would be in charge of training people on the computer calls. I saw some of my great volunteers include C: and R: (I am keeping names anonymous.) I am working from the Marin County Obama office and we were calling voters in battleground states to get them to support the President. We stuck to our usual states such as Nevada and Colorado but this weekend, we made a few calls out to the king of the battleground states: Ohio. Here are some of the interesting events that happened last weekend while I was volunteering.
C: is one of my favorite volunteers. When she got an Obama supporter, she would yell, “Obama, yay! Go Obama!” Then she would ring a bell. She said at the end of the call, “Go Obama!” It seemed to really energize the supporters when she talked to them which I liked.
She had a few interesting calls:
C: “Hello, is (voter) there.
Voter: “Yes, I’m about to drive to work.”
C: “Can you tell me if you like Obama?”
Voter: “I’m voting for him.”
C: “Great, now you go drive to work.”
Then C: called a voter who did not want to say who she supported. C said, “Tell me so I can be happy today.”
Voter. “No.”
C: “Hint?”
Voter: “Why.”
C: “I have worked since 9 (it was now 5pm), I would love the fruit of my labor. I would love to be happy.”
Voter: “Well, my vote will make you happy.”
C: and I assumed that this voter planned to support the President.
I made a few calls.
I found one woman who lived in Newark, Ohio. She was an Obama supporter and had family visiting from the West Coast and they loved Obama too. Said she could not help out because of her relatives visiting. I suggested she should volunteer with her relatives and she said it’s a possibility.
I talked to another nice woman, this time in Columbus, Ohio. I originally planned to talk to her son but she seemed friendly. She asked what I was calling about and I Was going to vote on Election Day, said it was tradition and I respected that.
I persuaded a couple of voters too. I talked to one woman in a Democratic leaning part of a battleground state. She said she was disappointed and was not sure what she was going to do. She disliked Romney but when I asked her what issues were important, she said she just felt down. I talked to her about how the Republican Congress blocked everything and slipped in how Obama saved the auto industry. She said she was now leaning towards Obama. She might need one more call to fully get her on our side but I was glad to push her in that direction.
I also talked to another woman who said she was probably voting for Obama but could not talk because there were trick or treaters outside. That was interesting because it is not Halloween yet.
I listened to some other conversations too. One lady said she worked for Obama in 2008 and could not do it this time, she was unable to drive. She would vote for him though.
There were other interesting calls that day too.
One caller was calling a guy named Tom and his wife picked up the phone. “Is Tom available? Are you his wife?”
Wife: “Are you his girlfriend?”
Caller: “Nope.” They then had a quick laugh and the wife was voting for Obama which made things good.
Then R. had a great conversation about healthcare. She talked about preexisiting conditions and how the health companies get rid of people who are sick by signing on people who are healthy. She was very persuasive on the healthcare issue and her experience as a nurse definitely helped.
She also found a voter who was worried that Obama was going to take away rifles and opposed the assault weapons ban. R: responded by saying assault weapons ban had nothing to do with rifles.
Then at 12pm on both Saturday and Sunday, the area flooded with new people.
I also was lucky enough to see Jerry Brown’s dog, Sutter. Gov. Jerry Brown could not show up but his dog was brought into the Marin Democratic Headquarters. There was a big event where people were taking photos with the dog. State Assembly candidate Michael Allen was there too. His staff and him got a photo with Sutter.
Later in the day on Sunday, C. was still there and then she found someone who was not sure about voting. She talked about how Romney wants to gut the middle class and how it was a civic duty to vote. She then talked about how she lived in London and in 2004, the London newspaper said, “U.S =59 million dummies vote for Bush.” C. talked about how she did not want the world to look at us again that way.
Also, C. asked me to talk to an Obama supporter who was being deployed with the Red Cross to New York for the hurricane and would miss Election Day. I managed to persuade her to vote absentee.
There was one voter who told me he liked Obama but that he really hated political calls. I told him that it was only ten more days until election day and it seemed to calm him down. He was pretty relaxed by the time we finished and said, “Have a good one.”
Not all the calls however were just as good as my first ones. They had us call some lists with more Independents and Republicans. They were pretty polite about it though.
Overall, it was a good weekend and our office was extremely packed. We had people rushing in and our office was very organized too. We all had roles and our volunteers were very excited. There were a few tough calls here and there but I feel very energized by all the support we saw. I am looking forward to the days ahead and this weekend. I am going to miss all the volunteering work we are doing, this election has been great!