Share your experiences volunteering for K/E Campaign

[Clobbersaurus]

Just thought I would report in on my experience at Kerry headquarters in DC yesterday. I'm interested what you all around the country are experiencing.

I was assigned to call voters in Florida. The purpose of the calls to:
1) Ask them the survey question: If the election were to be held today, who would you vote for, John Kerry, George Bush, or Ralph Nader? We were not to identify ourselves with Kerry Edwards, so as not to bias the poll.
2) If the voter said anything other than Kerry, we thanked them for their time and hung up.
3) If the voters said they were Kerry supporters we were to ask them if they would like to volunteer for the campaign.

Of the approx. 100 homes I called, I probably only got through to about 15 people. Only 2 said they were supporting Kerry. 5 or so were for Bush, 2 for Nader, around 6 undecided.

We talk on here all the time about how it is unfathomable that people would be undecided at this point, but some of the responses from the undecided voters were even more shocking.

When I surveyed one man, he asked me to repeat his choices several times over - as if he had NEVER HEARD OF THEM.

One woman I talked to, who clearly had her hands full with a bunch of screaming kids, when surveyed asked me to hold on for a minute. I then heard her turn and say to someone I presume was her husband, "Honey, who are we voting for?" Bad I know. But his response was "I don't know".

Finally, one latino man, who spoke only broken english, replied that he and his family simply do not vote.

Others around me - calling both Florida and Nevada - were having similar experiences. (Although there seemed to be much more positive Kerry response from Nevada than Florida callers.)

Before yesterday, I assumed that the fight was largely behind us. People have mostly made up their minds - Bush or Kerry - even the previously undecided voters in the swing states. That's simply not true. There's a lot more that can be done and needs to be done. The campaign is asking people to sign up for all sorts of volunteer activity all over the country. If you get a chance today, give them a call to see what more they need done.

Anyone have any other volunteer experiences out there to report on?

[Frances]

1. Yesterday a woman who was about 80

told me that she had not decided who she would vote for.

She's supporting our Congresswoman because she has helped her in the past.

But she doesn't think Chirac should tell us what to do. And she lost 2 brothers in World War II. It sounded as though she thought she'd be unpatriotic if she voted for Kerry. Anyway, I did the best I could when talking with her. But I think she left still undecided. Now I wish I had advised her to call her Congresswoman's office in hopes that she would connect the Congresswoman more closely with Kerry.

This was in one of teh Republican parts of the Bay Area of California.