Get Out the Vote

I’ve been trained. I now know how to register voters and I have my very own clipboard to do it.

My husband and I stopped by the Obama office in Falls Church on Friday and got “the training.” The place was a beehive of activity, but I was impressed that the office chief, a 20-something named Ari, came over and welcomed us and answered our questions about how we might best help out.

The training for voter registration took about 10 minutes. We learned how to screen for convicted felons and mentally incapacitated people. It’s really not so hard. My biggest concern was there were no materials in Spanish and my guess is many unregistered voters are Hispanic.

We will go out tomorrow to do door-to-door canvassing. But first we must be trained for that, too. So we will be meeting at someone’s home first to learn what to say and what not to say. If we knock on 40 doors, we are eligible to get an Obama sign for our yard. Woohoo!

Monday morning my friend Marjorie and I plan to hang out at a Metro stop in Virginia trying to sign up unregistered voters. Before then I plan to translate at least some of the materials into Spanish so I don’t make a complete fool of myself with Hispanics who are interested.

I know that one person makes very little difference in this election. But I’m hopeful that there are many out there just like me who are so fed up with the current administration and the possibility of another 4/8 years of the same that they will get out there and work to get Obama elected.