George's Blog - Archived Entry

First of all, mental note... maybe not the greatest idea to go to an REM concert in Berkeley the night before getting up at 5:30am the next day to drive to Reno and canvass for John Kerry.... for some reason my recuperative powers aren't the same at 40 as they were at 20..... but as the concert was ending, Michael Stipe took off his jacket to reveal his John Kerry T-shirt and implored the assembled bastion of liberalism, to get out there and make a John Kerry win a reality... So after 5 hours of sleep, a little coffee, I was on my way....

This was the 4th trip I was on and by far the most positive.....

It was awesome... The vast majority of people on my canvassing sheets were home. 95% of them were strong Kerry supporters and were definitely planning on voting. A good number of people were not aware of early voting and after talking to them about it, especially in light of some shady Republican registration activities, thought that they would try this early voting thing. My group actually took 5 people to the polls to vote on Saturday.

I've written in some evaluations that ACT needed to have something a little more substantial than Krispy Kreme donuts in the morning and not waste so much time coming back to debrief and have lunch at noon. Couldn't have been more different on Saturday. Tons of Bagels, OJ, water... the box lunches for us to take into the field and eat there were great....

A very positive day, tons of 1st time voters who were planning on voting, made new friends, ran into other groups who were canvassing as well, MoveOn, Nevada Democrats, etc... ACT's canvassing sheets were very, very good. Looks like they have weeded out a ton of bad names and addresses.... talked to some immigrants who were so excited to vote in this coming election.... "We watch Debates, Kerry win easily, we vote for him" A woman stuck in a minimum wage job who was thinking of voting for Bush, reminded her that Kerry wants to raise the min wage and Bush doesn't, she changed her mind on the spot..... A great day...

I'll be back in Reno on Saturday with my wife, 4yr old daughter, 2-yr-old son and my inlaws... I'll be hitting the pavement but maybe they can make phone calls....