Philadelphia Election Day 2004– or was it 1976?
Philadelphia election day 2004 was a study in contrasts. What got me there was decidedly newóinternet political organization. But when I got there it felt more like campaign 1976óall that were missing were the Jimmy Carter signs.
The organization effort was immense, fully harnessing the power of the internet. I volunteered with a group called MoveOn which mobilized hundreds of thousands of volunteers to travel to swing states to help get out the vote among people who were likely democratic supporters but weren't in the habit of voting regularly or were new voters. They setup online systems to send you where you were most needed and to help people find rideshares and housing. I knew I'd be visiting friends in New York that week so I signed on.
My journey started in Brooklyn where my rideshare rendezvous left me waiting 45 minutes on a street corner 2 blocks from his house. Once he arrived, he was certainly entertaining thoughófor about 3 minutes. Non-stop talker on all matter of subjects: politics, music, menstrual cycles, etc. One of those people packed with so much information but doesn't quite know how to use it. He said he was going to run for president next year and only campaign in Maine where they split the electoral votes. He was sure he could garner one or two electoral votes and parlay that leverage into a cabinet position. I think he might have trouble getting one or two votes let alone electoral votesóhe was that uncharismatic.
We stopped and picked up a friend of his, a Rasta fellow who turned out to be a calming influence. Or at least it let me off the hook from pretending to listen. And we were off. Accelerating his 84 BMW to maximum velocity at every opportunity. We hit 110 m.p.h. at one point on a very busy stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike. So we got there quickly at least, right? No such luck since he would speed past the right exit or impulsively take exits that seemed right at high speed. With getting lost several times, we arrived 2 hours late for the orientation. Overall, the bus I took back from Philly took less than half the time.
I think about half of Brooklyn was in Philly that day. Huge groups of people outside the office getting orientation on canvassing techniques. Over the next two days we formed our own little group that liked working together: two Brooklyn hipsters, an eager young thing from Toronto, a Mexican national working in New York, a local Philly hippy and a MBA A-personality from Moscow. Yes, Moscow, Russia. She is an American citizen working in Moscow but had flown in for five days just to help out. And me from Vancouver. We were a diverse group in geography and personality but it seemed to work.
The Muscovite's favorite tactic was to find groups of young black men on the streetóthe more gangsta-ish the betteróand engage them in election banter, making sure they were planning on voting. A pair of them gave us a parking lot hip hop performance of a rap they made up on the spot for us about the election. She was overall pleasantly surprised how engaged they generally were in the election and that almost all had registered and were planning to vote. And she was happy to have overcome the prejudices of her own suburban upbringing.
The rest of us spent our time more traditionallyódoor-knocking from the targeted lists prepared by MoveOn or talking to people and tracking results outside polling stations. You know I can't even tell you where the neighborhood we ended up in was. One volunteer drove us there and another drove us back. But I'm sure there was time travel as well as car travel involved since the neighborhood seemed to have stood still from the 70's. No new buildings. No chain stores. And when I went into a corner store, everything seemed to cost a quarter. When was the last time you paid 25 cents for a soda or a snack?
But it was also the people and the way they interacted with each other. It's a very Italian neighborhood with a smattering of Poles and more recent influx of African Americans. And a very strong union neighborhood. Actually it felt like I was in an episode of The Sopranosósurrounded by big beefy Italian union guys chatting me up about the family connections of everyone coming to vote. Everyone knew each other: their jobs, their kid's names, their histories, their political and union affiliations. It felt a bit strange to be parachuted into this neighborhood, asking people questions about their politics, when the locals, who were also working the polling place (from both parties) didn't need to ask. They already knew who everyone was and who they were going to vote for.
Despite the huge overall effort, I'm not clear how much we helped. At least Pennsylvania went the right way. But people did seem generally appreciative of the effort we were making and that many of us had traveled so far (at our own expense) to do it. Even if we were the sixth person to knock on their door that day. Maybe there's a lesson here about turning to the pastÃ-hmmmÃ-.Gimme Jimmy 2008!
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Posted by Doug Dosdall on December 22nd, 2004 in Articles.
