Historically, I am a procrastinator. So it's not a shock to me (or my friends and family) that my first effort to volunteer for the Obama campaign came tonight, on the eve of the election. I must admit that until very recently I thought Georgia was a lost cause. Recent polls predict I could be wrong, so I knew I had to do something or I'd kick myself later. Moveon.org requested volunteers, so I signed up and showed up at the local Obama HQ in Decatur at 7 PM tonight. They put me on phone duty, but I only got to place ten calls before the callers caught up with the data entry folks and we ran out of numbers to distribute for a bit. I reassigned myself to stapling duty for the rest of the night. Those ten calls made a big impression, though. Here's how one of them went:
Me (timidly, since this is only the third call I've placed where a human being picked up, the second of which hung up on me before I finished my first sentence): Hello, my name is Tori and I'm calling for the Campaign for Change here in Georgia. I'm calling for Barack Obama.
Lady on Phone: Girl ... ! We Republicans!
Me (trying to follow the script without sounding ridiculous but also trying not to sound defeated): So, can Senator Obama count on your support tomorrow?
Lady on the Phone: We don't cross that line!
Me (giving up, as instructed by script): Thank you for your time and have a lovely evening...
Lady on the Phone, laughing: I'm just messin' wit' you! Course we votin' for Obama!
The ninth call reached a man who said I was the second person who had called him tonight, and that he planned to vote for Obama. As I thanked him for his support and apologized for the duplicate phone calls, he interrupted me to say that nobody had called to ask for his wife, would I like to speak to her? I said of course I would, and she got on the phone to proudly tell me that she also supports Obama. It was a pretty bitchin' ninth phone call.
I hope I can sleep tonight. I'm excited and nervous. And going to bed. So I can get up early and vote.
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2 comments:
Good for you, Tori. It's been really exciting to see people I know, including me, do more than just vote this election. I just got back from the polling place. I hope I have some meetings today, because it's going to be hard to not watch every exit poll.
Loved the phone conversations.
Awesome, Tori! Good for you. I felt so good voting today I was practically skipping home. It is the first time I have actually been really behind a candidate - I usually vote for who I dislike less.
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