When I finally see her up close, I realize I would never have pegged her as a voter
But when I canvass, I try to talk to everyone
She's up on her balcony, while I prowl around on the ground, trying to figure out the building numbers in this sprawling complex, so I yell up to see whether she was registered to vote
Yes, she's registered
I push a bit: does she know about early voting?
No, she doesn't and she'd be happy to have some info: come right on up! the door is open!
I go around front, climb the steps to the landing, wondering if I've really got to barge into her place, and pause at the door
It opens immediately
Every now and then I meet someone who I think might bring a knife to a gunfight and still win. This woman looks like she works hard and knows how to drink hard if she wants. Her posture says without any suggestion of bluff that she's not scared of anybody. And yet one glance at her eyes convinces me that she is also sincere and very very nice
She says she hasn't voted for a long time and just re-registered last week
During our chat, her middle-school-aged daughter passes by once and again, politely and unobtrusively checking and double-checking that the scruffy dude on the doorstep isn't an unneeded extra problem for her mom
I give the woman the promised list of early voting sites and times and run through it quickly. She says this is helpful because she hasn't voted for a long time
And then I ask whether she's planning to vote for Obama this fall.
Yes, she's definitely voting for Obama. I give her a bit more info. She thanks me again
Walking away, I imagine a bumpersticker: "Kickass Biker Moms for Obama"
= new reply since forum marked as read
She did hard drugs, hard liquor, brawled like a guy after a long night of boozing, and beat the living daylights out of her biker husband when he'd try to beat on her. She's 63 now and she lives in a trailer in Covina, California and works in a machine shop. But she's no wilting flower! She raised four grandkids on her own, knocked some sense into her only daughter's head when she was selling herself for Meth, repairs her trailer's plumbing, puts new lo-flo toilets in the bathrooms, fixes the roof, and does everything herself. She's my future son-in-law's grandmother.
She had been planning on voting for Newt Gingrich because she liked his mouthiness, but thanks to my daughter and her boyfriend (who, between them, registered four more people to vote for President Obama!) she now will cast her vote for President Obama, but not only that, she's making her lazy-ass daughter and granddaughter vote for him, too! She'll be driving them to the polls next week for early voting.
No one messes with Chris when she wants something.
Kickass Biker GrandMas for Obama! 
