Silsby Samizdat

Got the Vote Out

Quick notes about my November 2.

Voted in the morning.
Grabbed brunch at my favorite restaurant/bar/bowling alley around the corner from my polling place.
Volunteered at a non-partisan Get Out the Vote campaign.
Witnessed the best and worst of the American voter mentality.

More on that last point.

We went out in a group of three, knocking on doors, urging people to vote and giving information as to where the polling place is and what counts as proper ID for same-day voter registration. Most people were not home, so we left a flier with the information. We started out going to the doors as a group. But as the afternoon went on, we started covering more ground by dividing up on alternate doors/alternate sides of the street. As I approached one of my fellow volunteers to check in, she had just knocked on a door.

Now, before I explain what happened next, I must give some background. She is a young Muslim woman, who decided to wear a headscarf that day, because she thought that since we were going into a neighborhood with a high Somali Muslim population, dressing conservatively would be less offensive to potential voters, and make our work easier. Unfortunately, this was not really the case.

As I reached the gate outside house, she knocked on the door. I could hear from the sidewalk:
"Hello, we are with---
"WE DON'T VOTE FOR MUSLIMS!"
And the door was slammed in her face.

Slamming the door is disheartening, but religiously motivated hate coupled with a door slam is terrifying. We tried to carry on for a while. She tried to laugh off the encounter, but we were all shaken and felt less safe than when we started.

We took a break and recounted out encounter to the volunteer coordinators. This helped to get over the shock, and emotions started to show through the facade of laughing it off.

We did not let this one house deter us. We went back out and finished the route. And I am glad we did. (Unfortunately, we were only two, because the woman who had faced the comment had to go to work)

We only had positive encounters on the second half of our route. Every one we talked to had already voted, but one woman thanked us for providing information to people in the neighborhood and asked us some questions. She wanted to bring her sister to vote, but the sister didn't live in the same precinct. We talked to her for a while, giving her information about where to call to find her sister's polling place, which she transmitted into her cell phone. She had stopped her phone conversation with her sister to talk to two random people about voting! And then helped her sister find the information she needed!
That felt like I was actually making a difference in someone's life. Helping people to do their civic duty. And she thanked us!

The volunteer day started with the singing of the national anthem. All of us. No one knew the political persuasion of anyone else. Singing the national anthem in a small gym in an inner city neighborhood. With a flag rigged up over one iron ceiling beam. All of these people here to work on making sure that everyone could participate in the American election process, irregardless of political affiliation. Seeing all of these people who were only connected in that they all shared the same belief in voting. By "what so proudly we hailed", I was already tearing up. And by "broad stripes and bright stars" I could only squeak out notes between chokes of emotion.

Vote.

Because we are all in this together.

Posted by silsby at November 2, 2004 05:30 PM