(Citrus) Park Life

This morning I made my way to ‘Jimmie’ (this has become our shorthand for Jimmie B. Keel Public Library) to join the rest of the campaign team. The number of McCain people had increased a little, and their volume had increased significantly. I really don’t think their presence is adding much value to their campaign as it mostly consists of talking loudly at voters as they arrive.

I did get talking to one Republican who was polite and friendly. His name was Kirk and while we disagreed about some fundamental things, we were able to hold a conversation without sliding into recrimination. One thing we did agree on is that the guy who’s there campaigning for a yes vote on amendment 2 (we’ll call him the yes-on-2er) is acting in quite a distasteful manner. Kirk says he refused to stand next to the yes-on-2er unless he removed the homophobic t-shirt he was wearing (‘God Hates Fags’ or suchlike); the t-shirt was removed.

On Sunday, Jimmy Buffett – who I’d never heard of but apparently is a popular singer in these parts – is playing a ‘Last Chance for Change’ show at the Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa. Tickets are available for free from Obama offices and volunteers at the early voting locations.

Once reinforcements arrived at the polling station, Harry and I went over to the office on Bearss Avenue. They sent us out canvassing on one of the less well-off estates in the area. The sheets they gave us were divided into evens and odds. This makes sense if you’re working as a pair, doing one side of the street each and sticking together the whole time. But we found that the area was so spread out, we were better off splitting the whole area in two – Harry doing one bit and me doing the other.

I have forgotten to mention previously that when canvassing, if someone wasn’t home, we had ‘door hangers’ – essentially a two-sided sheet of card, with a hole so we can hang it on the door handle, that urges people to take advantage of the chance to cast their vote early and gives details of the nearest early voting location. Tomorrow Chris Rock will be performing at a Get Out The Vote rally in Citrus Park. He’ll do a comedy set for the crowd and the idea is that everyone is led to the nearest early voting location immediately afterwards, so that they can vote early. As Citrus Park is just down the road from the estate we were canvassing tonight, flyers promoting the event tomorrow had been stapled to our ‘door hangers’.

As usual, the reaction we got was overwhelmingly positive. I met one elderly gentleman who I’m sure had only one or two teeth – he said he’d voted for McCain, because Obama 'won't do the things he's promising'. A legitimate follow-up question would have been 'But if he did, would that be a good thing?' I hope Obama gets the chance to improve the healthcare system for people like that man early in life so that they have access to dentistry before it’s too late. Responses such as this could be disheartening but it’s important to remember – this is why we’re here. Now we know he’s voted, no-one else from the campaign needs to spend time knocking on his door or telephoning him.

As time passed, it was a case of diminishing returns. Half way through the round, it struck me that this would be the case – it’s Halloween, so loads of people won’t answer their doors. Having knocked the majority of doors, we decided our work for the day was done.

Tomorrow I’m planning to head over to Brandon again, to canvass with Kevin. Not sure how I’m going to get there without a car, though, so this may change.