I’m in Cedar Rapids, in IA-01 (go Murphy!), looking to get folks to sign up for Vote by Mail requests. Sometimes I’m on decent neighborhood streets, and sometimes I’m crisscrossing Edgewood in a live-action version of Frogger. So far this season I’m averaging about 4 VbMs per outing. I’ll introduce myself and state I’m volunteering for Braley, then ask if they’d like to sign up to vote by mail, touting the benefits of having a ballot to fill out in the privacy of their own home, at their own pace, then mailing it in just like voting on Election Day. Sometimes I’ll get a firm No, and I’ll leave them in peace, as I really don’t want to bother them further and honk them off.
Last outing I asked a fellow about retirement age if he’d like to vote by mail, pointing out he wouldn’t have to travel all the way to the polling place. He smiled and pointed to the church next door, saying all he had to do was come down his steps, go through that gate, and enter the doors. Hard to argue with that. It’s a sense of pride for certain folks to perform their civic duty and vote on Election Day, no getting around it. And I'll admit it, it's my preference as well.
Recently I’m hitting a lot of folks who say they already have their requests in, ballots in hand, or even voted. I cross them off accordingly.
I had one fellow (in his 90's) on the hook for a ballot, but then he balked at the form. I pointed out it was just his name and address followed up by his signature, but all of a sudden he declined. I said if writing out all the information was a problem I could help him, but he was done.
Then there are the moments why we go door to door. After introducing myself and making my sales pitch, the fellow was happy I was there because he had not received anything yet. He asked if his wife could also get one. (Hell Yeah!) So he asked me to come inside, leading me straight through to the backyard where his wife was chatting with a friend. He stopped for a moment, paused and said, “You probably don’t want to give one to her, she’s a Republican.” I smiled, and said, “I have no problem with that.” Yes, it might be a vote that goes against us, but I’m not about to deny someone an opportunity to vote. I'll leave that to our Republican Secretary of State.
He filled his out first and handed over the tablet of VbM forms to his wife, then he and I started talking. He was well-versed in what was going on around the nation, almost like he was reading this web-site. We talked about the shenanigans in NC with the false fliers, the polls in Iowa, the situation for many Republican governors, the joy that is the implosion in Kansas, and so on. I mentioned the tighter-than-expected race in IA-04:
Me: Have you heard out Representative King’s race? He’s only three points ahead of the Democratic challenger [Jim Mowrer]. That’s amazing.
Voter: (smiling) I used to go to school with Steve King, all the way through high school. He was a jerk back then, too.
And that, my friends, is why we go door to door.