In MIchelle Bachman's district, 50 houses and 100+ phone calls later, I'm home and feeling good.

wellstone dem

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Mon Nov-03-08 10:07 PM
Original message

In MIchelle Bachman's district, 50 houses and 100+ phone calls later, I'm home and feeling good.

Edited on Mon Nov-03-08 10:10 PM by wellstone dem

I got off work early and headed to Democratic headquarters. They said, "Are you here to doorknock?" I said, "I've been called to door knock, I've been called to make phone calls, where do you need me?" "We really need doorknockers." They gave me literature which had Barack's picture on it, and had the voting location for the precinct I was knocking.

So I went to doorknock. I was sent to a relatively low-income neighborhood. Within the first 3 houses, I learned that there was a new polling location. The woman at the 3rd house, the woman with the Tinklenberg and Obama signs up, said, "Where do I vote?" And I told her. A couple houses later, an African American child peeked through the window shades, and then her mother opened the door with a serious expression on her face. I held up by Barack Obama literature and she got a big smile on her face. I told her where to vote. I offered a ride to the polls, I offered child care, and she said, "Don't worry, I'm voting." The list was Dems or leaning Dems, but I can say I've never had a response like I did tonight. So many smiles, so many thanks for telling me the location, so many "Don't worry, I am voting." It finally got so dark, I couldn't see the house numbers and couldn't read my walk list. So I stood under a street light, found one more house and knocked. The woman who answered was wearing an Obama button and a button that lit up and said, "Vote on NOvember 4."

So I headed back to headquarters and said, put me on the phones. There was the one guy who said, "So you want me to vote for the communists" (I replied, "no, I want you to vote for someone who will work for the middle class." He then tried to tell me an anti Obama joke, I told him I heard it and thanked him for his time.)

I've done lots of phone calling over various campaigns, but it has never been like tonight. I've never had so many people thank me for calling. I had questions from people about whether they could vote, how to register at the polls, whether they had to vote a straight ticket. I even had one guy who said, "I'm voting independent, but I want to thank you for calling. It is so good to hear a live voice." So I told him I was happy to call, and did he know that El Tinklenberg had been endorsed by both the DFL and the independent party. He did not know that. I got some hang ups, and lots of people didn't say how they would vote, but many people did say, "I'm voting straight Democrat, all the way, thank you for calling, thank you for volunteering."

So I knocked on 123 doors on Saturday, 50 more today, and 100+ phone calls. I will vote at 7 am tomorrow. I am so hopeful that I feel like crying with relief.