Mennonite Weekly Review

The first time I walked into a local campaign headquarters for a presidential candidate, I was struck with the spartan simplicity. It looked like a group of rooms that was unoccupied a few months earlier, and would be empty again soon. The walls were bare except for homemade signs. The furniture was mainly folding chairs and tables. Computers and phones filled out the unglamorous picture.

Goering

Four years ago I volunteered a number of days for a major political party’s nominee for president. In the summer, I and hundreds of volunteers phoned people to find out which way they were leaning. In the fall, we contacted those leaning our way to urge them to vote. On a brisk election day in early November, we went door-to-door, reminding “our voters” where their polling precincts were located.

This year the best I could offer in my busy schedule was a couple of afternoons for the presidential campaign. In mid-October, I drove to another slap-dash campaign headquarters and partnered with someone from Austin, Texas, who’d come to New Mexico to volunteer for a week.

As we drove to our assigned neighborhood, we chatted and I asked where she was staying while in town. At the home of another volunteer, she replied.

We get to work briskly; our assignment for the afternoon is to contact about 100 people. We have handouts with early voting sites and maps to the closest locations. We only go to assigned households, and are told to ask if they are leaning or definitely going to vote for a particular candidate. Also, we mark if they are not at home, or refuse to talk, or if the address is wrong, not U.S. citizens, or cannot speak English.

It is a workman-like task. We pound the pavement and drive endlessly around blocks, looking for streets not always on the map.

Many folks are not at home. Some yards have menacing dogs. Some people are happy to tell us they are voting for “our guy.” A few individuals voting for different candidates are equally unhappy we are invading their space.

For the most part, my encounters are interesting and civil. One man tells me he is undecided, although he is concerned about education. Then he sighs sadly and says his 401K is almost gone. Someone else says she is voting for the opposition, but thanks me for doing this work and standing up for what I believe is right.

Another woman runs after me in the street to add one more thing. She is tired of the negative campaigning, she says urgently. Please pass that on to someone, she says. I tell her I will.

I have worked for winners and losers, in local and national campaigns, for Democrats and Republicans. I have knocked on doors in affluent, middle class and run-down neighborhoods.