House Calls

By Evan Derkacz, AlterNet. Posted September 23, 2004.

Mindy, a ruddy-faced mother in her early 40s, opened the door just after Johanna knocked on it. Something in the way Mindy occupied the doorway indicated that she would tolerate no BS. After a brief introduction, in which Johanna explained that she was canvassing for voter information, Mindy jumped in to comment that her issues were both taxes and education. "They are," she believes, "the pillars of this country and the politicians are destroying them... they have to learn." Though she refused to reveal whom she'd be voting for, she closed with, "We're not free if we can't get a good education."

Mindy took a pamphlet and quickly shut the door. Johanna, descending the porch steps, filled out the voter form for Mindy's address, circling the numbers that corresponded to "taxes and education" in the issues section, leaving the voter preference blank.

At the next house, Johanna met a middle-aged man, Charlie, who smiled when he opened the door. Charlie's issue was "undoubtedly Iraq." He was retired and concerned about healthcare as well, although he would only comment on Iraq: "Bush is doing a good job," he said, "sure they're dying, but he's not forcing the issue, which is good, right?" Johanna was stunned and could only summon a bureaucratic, "Umm, yeah, so, uh, you're pretty sure you're voting for Bush then?" In a fluster she told him he looked like Howard Dean (which he in fact did). He recoiled, goodnaturedly, "No way, c'mon!"

"No," she cried, "he's good-looking, I wouldn't say if I didn't think he was good-looking!" He smiled warmly, took the pamphlet and wished her well. Johanna circled the little "B" for voter preference, and moved on.

Johanna was one of 150 volunteer canvassers who joined Citizen Action of New York, a part of the voter mobilization efforts last weekend departing from the Democratic stronghold of New York for the nearby battleground state of Pennsylvania. This was a canvassing trip that required personal sacrifice. The buses left in the early morning on a soaking wet Saturday – the affiliated storms of Hurricane Ivan were still busy battering the East Coast. There was financial sacrifice as well – volunteers were asked to pay $25 to help cover the cost of the trip.

Andy Koch, one of the affable young bus captains, delivered the big picture. There were nine other buses from New York and New Jersey heading for key districts in nearby battleground states. In all, this fourth national day of action would involve over 200 separate events in 16 battleground states organized by a coalition of 32 all-star progressive groups called America Votes – including the MoveOn.org Voter Fund, Emily's List, AFL-CIO, NAACP National Voter Fund, NARAL Pro-Choice America, and Music For America. In the past, Koch told the canvassers on his bus, all these organizations would concentrate their resources on key voter areas without coordinating their efforts, sending volunteers to the same doors, leaving reams of literature on everything from clean water to gun control to reproductive rights. This created overlap and a lot of wasted energy – and it had the effect of turning off potential voters.

The approach of the America Votes coalition is truly remarkable. And the fact that every American – let alone your liberal and progressive friend; you know, the one who thinks all is lost – hasn't heard about it should make your jaw drop.

In America Votes' first coordinated wave of bus trips to crucial battleground states, information was collected on the issues of greatest concern to voters in a particular area. For example, in the first wave, a few busloads of volunteers went to places like Montgomery County, the suburbs of Philadelphia, to catalog individual voters’ concerns which were stored in a database and evaluated. While the majority of voters in this county are registered Republicans, they voted overwhelmingly for Al Gore in 2000. Montgomery County has an issue-based electorate. Based on the data collected on the first wave, the organizers concluded that the main concern of voters in Montgomery County is the environment – or, to be more specific, clean water and air.

Once that determination was made from the collected information, a second wave, last Saturday's group, was sponsored by the organization whose expertise best matches the concerns of the area – in the case of Montgomery County it was the League of Conservation Voters (LCV). Johanna and the others were sent out to distribute appropriate literature and to gauge which issues were paramount and which candidate voters favored – if any. So, armed with data that showed a majority of Montgomery residents are concerned about a clean environment in the context of other election topics like national security and special interests, the LCV tailored the pamphlets to these concerns.

The LCV pamphlet explained that Bush was in the pocket of Big Oil, and that a Kerry presidency would lead America to a healthier environmental future – Kerry would push for alternative energy sources, which would in turn make America safer as it would reduce our reliance on petroleum from Middle-East countries with dicatorships.

The next voter mobilization wave will consist of phone calls to voters based on the information Johanna’s group and previous “waves” collected – calls to those who are leaning toward or are strongly for Kerry to assist them in the registration process and to let them know where they can vote. The final push from the America Votes coalition takes place November 2, when these voters will be offered locally-organized rides to and from the voting booths.

Evan Derkacz is a New York-based writer and contributor to AlterNet.

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