Well this morning I spent 3 hours --wasted 3 hours-- doing something I've never done before: hanging flyers on doorknobs. I know it was a complete waste of time, because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the doorknob flyer was never made that changed a single vote. So why did I do it? Because I felt like I had to do something. Anything.
Last night I answered the phone and heard a recorded message from the Mount Vernon District (my district) Democratic Party, asking for volunteers to distribute doorknob flyers. I thought, what the hell. I showed up at 10am and there was a small knot of people at the meeting place, surrounded by Kerry/Edwards and Jim Moran (our congressman) signs of all sizes. I was handed a map with a section of the district outlined in green marker, a list of instructions, and 150 flyers. All the flyers said was VOTE DEMOCRATIC on Nov. 2, with the names of Kerry and Moran side by side.
As I walked around a neighborhood I'd never visited before (Woodlawn 2 was the designation of my territory), I kept trying to imagine a voter standing in the booth on Tuesday, trying to decide whom to vote for, and thinking, "Well, I remember the doorknob flyer somebody hung on my door Saturday morning. That really impressed me; I guess I'll vote for John Kerry." Right.
Actually, these flyers weren't paid for by Kerry's campaign--they were paid for by Moran's, and the guy running this volunteer effort was part of the "Moran for Congress" team. Hanging doorknob flyers to remind voters of an upcoming election is just about all Moran has to do to get reelected every two years; his is a very safe seat in a heavily democratic district.
Yes, I did say this was a heavily democratic district, and yes, this is Virginia I'm talking about. Mount Vernon is part of Fairfax County, which is very democratic. According to the Fairfax County Democratic Party (I sent them money this year; I also sent money to the Mount Vernon District Democrats. I sent money all the hell over the place from Alaska to South Dakota to Pennsylvania and to half a dozen other congressional and senatorial campaigns. I sent money to Wesley Clark, John Edwards, and, oh yeah, John Kerry.) Where was I? Oh yeah-- the Fairfax County Democratic Party. According to some literature they mailed out, they figure John Kerry can win Virginia if he can win Fairfax County by 45,000 votes.
Additional literature from the Mount Vernon District democrats claimed there were as many as 20,000 unregistered potentially democratic (almost certainly democratic, truth be told) voters in the Mount Vernon District, and they were pulling out all the stops to register voters and get people to the polls.
Actually, it's exciting to be involved in this effort. Virginia is expected to go for Bush by several percentage points. It would be an incredible victory for us if we pulled it off for Kerry. Watch Virginia Tuesday night. We might not turn blue, but we just might make it close.
You won some votes for Kerry, never doubt it. Those door hangers do gin up turnout.
Mary, bless you from a fellow Virginia blogger for the thankless task of distributing door hangers.
Did the flyers have rides to the polls numbers, or polling place info, or election protection numbers?
There was no useful information on the flyers-- just the names of the candidates. Oh well!