Last Push for Voter Registration - Pike Market, Seattle 0 comments
I took off with my clipboard to First and Pike in the area of the Pike Place Market.
I quickly found that the tourists off the cruise ships ignored me. I suspected that they found the Market an exotic and possibly scary place and that it might be a mistake to talk to someone like me. I also suspected that alot of them came from flyover states and were already registered - to vote for people I do not think would be good for this country.
I know the Market well and it is labyrinthine. I knew I would be wasting my time to stand out in a busy area like a hawker. I went down in the depths of the market and across to the competing Sanitary Market and I focussed on the merchants themselves. I was surprised to learn how many work seven days a week. Some were unclear about what they needed to do to be able to vote, though they had the intent to do so.
I processed new registrations, name changes, address changes and gave out forms for elderly parents. I was also thanked many times for what I was doing, but mostly by the merchants and a few young people. I was assured by some merchants that they had in fact already registered and were desperate to vote.
It was encouraging enough that I may try to it tomorrow, before returning to work, as this is the last weekend before the deadline. I did have quite a few people tell me they were uneasy because they didn't have their absentee ballots yet, or assurance in writing that they could vote. I told them to check on line and wish I'd had with me the link for doing so. Most didn't know it existed.
Overall, there was an excitement about being able to vote, a suspicion about the system and its integrity and a skepticism about the results of the last two elections. There was a nervousness about whether their ballot would be received, sent off properly, read and annotated and finally counted. There was also an enthusiasm this year that I have never seen before.
The "Ubiquitous Pig" book was part of a display of used goods. I picked up the book, to take a closer look, and the card which is shown in the photo fell out of it!
Last Push for Voter Registration - Westlake Mall, Seattle 0 comments
Josh Castle once again organized a really successful Voter Registration effort. I'm waiting to hear how successful in terms of numbers, but judging by previous efforts (2004, 2008), it will be impressive. As Josh said, every vote is a treasure.
Ben Doko was out waving his sign, along with other recruits, at Westlake, 5th and Pike. They had a table which consistently had people crowded around. Nearby, musicians, coffee stands and merchants strongly supported their candidate.
At one point, a tall guy with a McCain-Palin shirt strode by and said to one of the volunteers, "What a waste of campaign money." In actuality, this Republican could not conceive of the fact that people would volunteer their own time, without being paid, to uphold democracy. It seems one party would rather have ordinary people vote and the other would seek to disenfranchise them.
As a voter registrar and volunteer, I did not encourage people to vote for a particular candidate. The people I registered very openly supported the same candidate I support, and vigorously. They did not need a push from me. In any event, we had plenty of Republicans for Obama and Independents for Obama buttons and they moved right along with the rainbow ones with Space Needles.
Even the bus ride home was a seminar - from the dockworker at the back of the bus who was an ex Navy Seal and favored Obama, to the fifteen year old too young to vote but politically astute, to the Florida transplant who favored Ron Paul and was able to articulate his belief that it was a mistake to ever go off the gold standard. I love this town.
Great things in SF 0 comments
Alan C of Seattle received this from a buddy in San Francisco .................................. :>
Subject: Big voter registration drive here
Dozens of young folks and some seniors are up and down Fillmore Street right now and at our Saturday Farmers' Market registering new voters. And each one is wearing an Obama sticker. They're not pushing their candidate but they respond with a big grin when they hear someone is voting for Obama and ask if you want to be a precinct worker or make an on-line donation. Haven't seen any Clinton workers in our neighborhood in months.