I made calls once before, two years ago, for Suzan DelBene, who would have been my representative if she had won, but 2010 wasn't the year for a Democrat to upset an incumbent Republican in a conservative-leaning district, and she didn't really come close. My inspiration, besides being somewhat passionate about politics, was the great man himself -- Bill Clinton. My friend Karl met Clinton at a local rally, and Clinton pointed a finger at him and said "You gotta get out there and make sure people vote!", or something similar, and I tried to live up to Bill's expectations, even though I heard it second hand.
The experience with DelBene was miserable. I did my duty for her for a couple of hours, but then I told them no more. I was calling "independent" voters to convince them to vote for DelBene. It was close to the end of the election cycle, many people had already voted, and those independent voters were mostly just sick of getting calls from every political group under the sun. I got as many rejections as the guys who walk house to house trying to sell "free" home alarm systems, and probably a less friendly reception.
Still, when Chuck asked me to come help, I gave it another try. I figured at least Obama is a more compelling candidate than DelBene could ever hope to be, plus I would really like to have an influence beyond my own vote if I can.
The experience today was much more tolerable. This time, we were calling MoveOn.org members in Florida, trying to get them to volunteer to help contact Florida voters in their neighborhoods. I think maybe every MoveOn member (whatever that means -- how do you become a member?) is going to vote for Obama, so we were definitely talking to friendlies. I got a few quick hangups or "not interested," but mostly people were pleasant even if they did not want to help.
So how successful were you, Dennis? Well, let me say first that, even talking to known committed Democrats, you get more "noes" than "yesses." Quite a few more.
So on to the numbers. After we watched a video and practiced on each other, we received sheets of 16 people to call and try to get them to volunteer at a local event in Florida. I went through 3 sheets, so 48 calls. Of those, maybe 30 or so went to answering machines, which means I just hung up, not supposed to leave a message. A couple of those 30 went to a message saying they were not taking any calls, probably a good swing state strategy for trying to reclaim their life until after the election. Two people that I remember hung up on me, and one said not interested before I got started. About 5 were disconnected or wrong numbers. So that leaves maybe 10 that I talked to.
Like I said, people were nice. Some of them explained the difficult circumstances that made it impossible for them to volunteer; the first guy I talked to said that his wife was in a hospital bed full time at home. Others were just busy. Some talked about the election, said that Obama had their vote, but in the end couldn't help. The most excited person was clearly an African-American woman who told me with some excitement that she and everyone in her house and her friends were definitely voting for Obama, and she had worked on registration, but even she didn't volunteer.
And then there was George, a 76-year-old from Pensacola, the one guy I called who agreed to volunteer. My one success. He said that he might bring his daughter though, so that would be two if he does.
Altogether, the eight people who made calls at the calling party recruited a total of eight Floridian volunteers, so my success rate was right on the average. Even getting committed Democrats to volunteer is a laborious process. The whole thing really is like those poor guys selling the home alarms, or like trying to find a job. A whole lot of effort goes into trying to get any positive result. Eight volunteers call 350 people, and eight of the 350 call some other people, and in the end you influence a dozen voters, you hope. Then the Koch brothers invest another $2 million in ads to overwhelm you.
But that's the way it is done. I did what I could, Obama seems to be winning, and I'm OK with it. We'll be back at it October 14, so we can try to top our eight successes.
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