abracanabra | Political Duty Done (Except for the Voting Part) (Reply)

Yesterday afternoon I volunteered for a political campaign for the first time.

I went to the Minneapolis office and wound up working the phone bank. It's a large ground-floor room with ranks of foldable tables for the phone bank and the data entry stations. The front of the office was poster and leaflet center. There were some interesting decorating touches. A very shiny wall mural of Obama. Some Barack o'lanterns. One of the things I wished I'd taken pictures of was an AC/DC style poster for Barack. Or that I'd grabbed one. In the back, they had the quite generous snack layout and the restroom, which had a sign on the inside asking people to make sure the door was unlocked when they left--signed "Barack."*

I was afraid I'd get shuffled into data entry (which I'm good at, but--yech, too much like work), but they assigned me to making phone calls to people who'd supposedly expressed interest in volunteering instead. This felt a bit surreal to me. I was only there to volunteer for a few hours, probably not going to be going back--and I was calling people to encourage them to volunteer this weekend and election day. It was also strange volunteering at Democratic headquarters, what with me not being a Democrat** and all. Phone calls in the middle of the afternoon don't actually get many people, so most of what I did was leave messages, though I did get a handful of volunteers committed.

So, if you support Obama and want to do something to help, they really need volunteers for election day and for this weekend. They're looking for people to drive others to the polls, to knock on doors, and to make phone calls. Find your local office.

* Side note: I wonder how many kids born this year are going to be named Barack? Lots, I imagine. I'm picturing kindergartens filled with 'em a few years from now.
** If you must know, unaffiliated, but I usually vote mostly a Green ticket, and that's where my "support a political party" tax money goes.