Monday, September 27, 2004

True Story from the Campaign Trail

I was out today registering voters. My co-canvasser and I knocked on about 75 doors. As it was a predominantly Hispanic apartment complex, my teammate, Jesus, did most of the talking. I hung back and focused on tracking our progress and handing Jesus the right paperwork (Spanish language voter registration, English vote by mail request, bi-lingual candidate information...) at the right time.

Late in the day, after having listened to Jesus talk to mostly Spanish speakers, I was somewhat surprised to hear a woman greet us at her door in perfect English. After Jesus did his bit I was even more surprised to hear this woman say: "Oh, I already have my voter registration. I just haven't mailed it back yet." No one else we had spoken to had been similarly prepared. "We'd be happy to turn it in for you," we volunteered.

When she handed us the form we looked it over and pointed out that she needed to fill in a couple of things. Among them was her intended affiliation. "The affiliation field can't be blank," we told her. "Though you can specify 'Unaffiliated' if you prefer."

"Oh, I'm definitely a Republican," she interjected.

"I just didn't know how to spell it."