So I spent some of this evening phone-banking for Obama.
One of the benefits of being a green carded permanent resident is that not only can you give money to shore up the evil excesses of big government, you can also volunteer to help out. I justify my support by claiming that I am merely good old fashioned free market competition to other, paid, telemarketeers, because that’s pretty much what phone-banking is. You have a script, you call somebody in a swing state, and ask them who they like and why. Well, actually, you mostly call dead-end numbers or are hung-up on (I don’t blame them: when I was in a swing state in the last election, it was amazing how besieged voters were: every radio ad a political play, every call a pollster or a robocall, every mail delivery weighed down by glossy lobbying brochures and postcards).
My favourite moment was calling Lucille in Nevada. After a cheery “Hello, lover — I’ll be with you in a moment”, I was put on hold for a few seconds, and then asked what I’d like. When I said that what I’d like would be speak to Lucille, I was patched through to an older lady, who explained she handled the girls here, and anything that I wanted had to go through her. After talking at cross purposes for a few more seconds, we both realised that Lucille did not want what I was offering, and vice versa. I marked it as “wrong number”. Whose mailing lists did they buy for Nevada, anyway?
Anyway, I highly recommend doing this kind of thing (the phone-banking, I mean): I think both campaigns now let you do it from home.
September 9th, 2008 at 9:27 am
For a mere minimum online donation, you too can add any name and phone number to the Obama (or McCain) database! Under any name/phone number/email addres you might want to pick!
September 10th, 2008 at 6:27 am
If you can get involved with one on the parties (preferably the libertarians), you may be able to be an election observer or poll watcher. You might need to be a registered voter though. In my state the Poll Watcher can go into a polling place and observe how the poll workers are doing their job, examine the registration books and question how things are being done. However you can’t interfere with anything even if it appears to be illegal. You can always report it and document the problems which is part of the point of being a watcher. You will find that the Libertarian are often welcomed by the Republicans and Democrats as impartial observers.