Political activities

So I know I've been really lax about updating the ol' blog lately. Part of the reason is my obsession with the election, which has me surfing the web wayyy too much. I've been volunteering to register voters for a few hours every week; so far I've registered 11, of every persuasion. It's interesting work. I've volunteered at four different places - a post office, a farmer's market, a transit center on a weekday, and the same transit center on a weekend; and a grocery store. The PO was the most productive spot; I registered five people in two hours. Every other place, I've registered about one person per hour.

The difference in the transit center on the weekday, versus the weekend, was striking. On the weekday, it was mostly young people or people who were not working for one reason or another. Most people wouldn't look me in the eye; they wouldn't talk; they seemed in general like they wanted to have nothing to do with me. On the weekend, it was a much different crowd - more families, more people of a higher socioeconomic status, and more people interested in chatting. I had a long talk with an ex-felon carnival operator, and an enthusiastic liberal guy on Vicodin (he had broken his arm in a scooter accident). He gave me stock tips and told me how hard it was to invest in gold.

In general, most people were either completely indifferent to me (and wouldn't look me in the eye), matter of fact ("I'm registered, thanks"), or very enthusiastic about voting. I had a few people who seemed suspicious (one asked me what state I was from, of all things). A couple asked me who I was voting for. And quite a few said they didn't want to register, didn't want to be involved - as one said, "they're all crooks."

There were a few registrants that I was proud of. One hadn't voted since the Nixon administration. He said he didn't want to vote, but I cajoled him and he actually took a form home and said he might fill it out. The other, a contractor around 47 years old, had never voted and never registered. He was excited and proud to be doing it for the first time. That made my two hours standing in the cold in front of Albertson's worth it.