Behind the Scenes: Saturday, November 3

I left Denison at 7:00 am (before light) to drive to Onawa for our first day of GOTV, bringing the folders of walk and call packets to Ken, who is the staging director (or some similar title) and is also hosting the staging at his house. I started the morning scrambling eggs from his chickens for the small group of us there early - including two young guys from Chicago who arrived at his house last night to help canvass in Monona county. The eggs were really big, and heavy, with thick shells. I always buy free range chicken eggs, but they are nothing like these. These seem to be particularly happy chickens, but I'm not sure how that translates to large eggs.

Then two women from Kansas, around my age or a bit older, arrived to help canvass until Monday morning. They're staying in a motel in Onawa. Now that I don't need to go back and forth between Onawa and Denison, the hour and fifteen minute drive each way seems stupid, and I'm considering joining them. Anyway, they're fabulous, ex-middle school teachers, right up my alley. Fun and smart. One of them was the canvassing captain, kept everything organized, and also canvassed a turf. Her friend went out with me, and we did one rural and one semi-rural turf. She came along to a few doors with me, and then I drove and she walked up to the houses while I plotted the next stop.

When we converged back at the house at the end of the day, the names of people who've already voted got "struck." I didn't stick around for that, because I needed to drive back to my hotel in Denison. But the idea is that after the Secretary of State posts the names of people who've voted that day, we "strike" them from our call and walk lists.

And tomorrow we go out again! And Monday! And Tuesday! The idea is that we have lists only of pro-Obama voters who haven't voted yet. We go to the door, ask to speak to the person on our list, ask if they support the President, and remind them to vote. We also ask them to consider voting early, which they can do through Monday. This not only puts their vote in the bag, but allows us to strike their name and not go back again to remind them to vote.

And we wonder why people are frickin' sick of us!

If no one is home, we have very elaborate, kind of colorful and lovely, tree-killing door knob hangers. For today, Sunday, and Monday they say "Vote Tuesday", and each one has the address of their local precinct, so we have to be careful with the packets. For Tuesday, they're a darker blue, and say "Vote Today."

EVERY TIME we go to someone's door and they're not home, unless and until they are struck from the list, they get a doorknob hanger.

Here's how you got off of our master list up through and including yesterday: 1. die; 2. move; 3. be a Romney supporter; 4. VOTE.

Here's how you get off now: VOTE.

We're keeping notes and won't actually go back to people's houses who've told us that they support Romney, or that someone has died. But the call lists won't be changed. I'm determined not to get sucked into calling again. Everyone hates it. I hate it.

Here's how you stymie us: put a dog pen outside your front door, completely surrounding the entrance to your house, and then put a big dog in it. Seems to be a bit of a thing here. Maybe only during campaign season?