Lots of Gravel Roads and Farmhouses Today

Julie and I started the day cranky and moody, delivering three vote by mail requests and one ballot to the Monona County courthouse, and discovering that yet another ballot by a presumed Democratic voter was invalid because she forgot to sign the enclosed affidavit. And because we could only find two of the first three houses we were looking for in rural Castana, which took us one and a half hours. Two houses! And of the two we found, one wasn't home and the other had already voted. So, Julie convinced me that we hadn't actually helped the President at all, and our time would be better spent in our other rural walk area, outside of Onawa, which was somewhat more densely populated and had the added benefit of our being able to ask Ken to plot the route for us.

Then the day started looking up. We arrived at Ken's, and his chickens and rooster came running over to meet us like a pack of friendly dogs. Ken says they think food just falls off of people, because he spoils them. Then the sun came out, and he plotted us a route past a lake, over some creeks, past so many picturesque barns, farmhouses, cattle, and rolling acres of farmland that we enjoyed just being outside.

We found all but one of the houses, the route was super efficient, and everyone who was home was friendly. We didn't pick up any new ballots, but the reminders were useful and we were able to troubleshoot a couple of ballot problems. That, plus spending the day together driving through the countryside on a gorgeous day, was a really positive experience.

We stopped by the courthouse just before they closed at 4:30 to get a couple of answers to ballot issues, and to alert them to a thrown away ballot.

Arriving back at the office, the stress ratcheted up. Two important volunteers flaked out on Marlene at the last minute, so she's scrambling for replacements to run a staging center for GOTV this weekend. But Julie and I joined another Julie, Grady and Marlene phone banking for a couple of hours, then Julie learned how to input data and after a break for dinner (microwaved rice and beans, pity me, people!!) we inputted the data from the day until 11:00 pm. So, a productive and fun day.

And, earlier, when we stopped by the mechanic to see if he thought my car would be road-worthy for canvassing and also the drive back to Chicago, not only did he say it would be fine, but he didn't charge me! Not that I'm abandoning Illinois, but Iowa is certainly growing on me.

Julie drives back to Omaha tomorrow night, and flies back to Chicago Thursday morning. I'm in denial!