31 Comments - 47th Ward - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 12:57 pm: I worked on an aldermanic race in 1991 where there were no undecided voters to be found. They either loved my guy or hated his guts and it quickly became clear as soon as someone answered the door. I was either subjected to an expletive filled tirade or welcomed in for coffee. It’s the only time I’ve filled out my walk sheet with pluses and minues only, no zeros. - Responsa - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:01 pm: This ain’t the 60’s anymore. The execution of traditional precinct walkers and candidates ringing doorbells creeps out a lot of home and apartment dwellers these days-especially in the evenings. Unless the person already knows the individual who’s canvassing at the door they’re likely to be viewed more with suspicion than with welcome, and to assure safely the door will not even be cracked open. The ones who campaign, sign people up, and personally hand out literature at local malls, grocery stores and outside neighborhood sporting events are much more likely to achieve their goal of influencing and locking in voters. - Team Sleep - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:02 pm: In 2006, I walked a few precincts in Decatur with an HRO intern. I was walking for my statewide candidate and he was walking for their candidate. It was one of those weird areas where the line between “nice neighborhood” and “rundown part of town” met. As we approached the end of the first precinct, I saw the biggest dog I’ve ever seen in my life and yelled, “Hey, we need to get the hell out of here! I just saw a 10 foot dog!” He panicked and said, “Yeah, that’s a good excuse to quit for the day and grab lunch!” We ran back to my car, sped off, stopped at McDonald’s and quickly realized that we were idiots. - TooManyJens - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:05 pm: Responsa, that hasn’t been my experience, and I’ve canvassed quite a few places in the last 12 years. Most people whose doors I’ve knocked on have been at least open to talking to me, and more than you might expect are actively glad to have someone come to their door to talk about the election with them. People say “I just know what I’ve seen on TV” a lot — they want more than that. - TooManyJens - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:07 pm: By the way, speaking of Champaign County, there’s been controversy about the current County Clerk forcing people who register during the grace period to go home and wait to have absentee ballots mailed to them instead of voting right away there at the Clerk’s office (as other early voters can do). This has implications for the IL-13 race since Champaign-Urbana is a big base of Gill’s support. - Oswego Willy - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:07 pm: In a race, “I had heard” a field operative thought these 2 young “people” were working their precints way too quick, and way too clear cut so early in the race, so the operative gave the two upstarts the opponent’s home precinct. Four days later, on Report Night, the 2 came in, and the Precinct was 3 to 1 for the their candidate. The operative asked about one specfic family, who were rated a “Plus” and wanted a yard sign. It was the Opponent’s House The Operatve thanked the 2 upstarts and said, “You guys are good. You fliiped our opponent and they wanted a yard sign! I guess we can all go home!” After much “discussion” all agreed that the 2 upstarts should not return to volunteer. Still cracks me up! - Original Rambler - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:12 pm: I innocently rang a doorbell only to find out my candidate had fired this guy 2 years ago. He lit into me. I got him back though. Dumped every leftover piece of my candidates literature I could find on his doorstep after the polls closed! - MrJM - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:21 pm: I knocked on a politically mixed household looking for a petition signature from the solid D wife. The solid R husband answered the door and grunted, “She’s the Democrat and she’s not here.” As I thanked him for his time, he interrupted me adding, “But she’d sign it if she was home, so give it to me.” He then signed my petition and shook my hand. I guess THAT is how mixed marriages survive. – MrJM - Not It - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:26 pm: I was on a caucus staff walking a precinct at the same time a staffer from the other caucus was walking the same precinct. We kept running into each other and at one point were criss-crossing the same street. It was sort of fun, and we joked about it, and when the election was over we had a couple drinks and told war stories of the campaign. The staffer from the winning campaign even paid the bar tab. I wish the caucus leaders that we were working for took the same attitude year-round, maybe then our State wouldn’t be such a mess. - the old professor - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:34 pm: Back in 1984, I was canvassing for Walter Mondale and heard a most succinct example of the government welfare mentality. At one house, a woman said “We’re a military family, and a vote for Mondale is bread off our table.” - TooManyJens - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:44 pm: Wow, MrJM, that’s better than the experiences I’ve had with mixed marriages, the last one of which involved the husband yelling at me to leave because “we’re on the other side!” as I was talking to his (undecided, according to her) wife. - Porter McNeil - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:46 pm: Knocking on doors in my February 2 primary for state rep, five degrees out in a blizzard, and I had this exchange at a door in East Moline. “Hello, I’m Porter McNeil and I’m running for State Representative in the 71st District.” Woman at the door: “If you seriously want to go to Springfield, I think you need to see a psychiatrist.” ;) - Anon-amiss - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:51 pm: “The ones who campaign, sign people up, and personally hand out literature at local malls, grocery stores and outside neighborhood sporting events are much more likely to achieve their goal of influencing and locking in voters.” With all due respect, I don’t think you know what you are talking about. - formerGOPer - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:53 pm: Back in the 80’s, when I was on House staff, two other staffers and I were walking a precinct. They’d gotten a block ahead of me when this huge dog started for me. They stood there frozen realizing they couldn’t get to me in time. I just stood my ground until the dog stopped and decided he really didn’t mean it. I probably should mention I’m afraid of big dogs. However, that’s not the scariest thing I encountered out walking. The scariest was kids answering the door and telling me there weren’t any adults at home. Even in the 80’s and 90’s parents should have been aware how bad that is. - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 1:54 pm: Anon-amiss, I was going to comment on that quote and forgot. If you campaign at a mall or whatever, you’re never sure if you’re actually talking to people who live in the district you’re working. It’s not very efficient. - x ace - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:01 pm: Had to Tell the Candidate what his name was at each house. Kankakee , IL- 30 + years ago- alderman candidate’s name was spelled Ciaccio. Traditional pronunciation “Chach-oh” but younger school teacher brothers had Americanized the name to “See - ah -see - oh” . So we’d look at walk list and tell him how to introduce himself at each door depending on if they were “old timers” or had kids in school. ( he upset the Ryan - McBroom machine candidate) - Tommydanger - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:02 pm: It happened just a week or so ago. I am a candidate and I knocked on a gentleman’s door.He looked at the picture on my brochure and asked me if that was me. I repled it was and he proceeded to ask me if I remembered picking up a 7 iron at a specific golf course 17 years ago. I confessed I have trouble remembering what I ate last night. He went on to say that I was in the foursome behind him and he never got his club back.Despite my assurances that if we had found the club we would have turned it in at the clubhouse, his only reply was that’s what you’re supposed to do. So, I may have wrongly lost a vote and I still don’t have his 7 iron. - Tom - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:05 pm: IN the 1990’s I was walking for a certain state rep when I rang the door bell on a nice 2 flat…a beautiful coed answered dressed only in a flimsy robe…she had a martini in her hand and invited me in…you can imagine the rest! - Anon-amiss - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:11 pm: –a beautiful coed answered dressed only in a flimsy robe…she had a martini in her hand and invited me in…you can imagine the rest!– Isn’t that every precinct worker’s dream?!?! - MrJM - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:20 pm: a beautiful coed answered dressed only in a flimsy robe…she had a martini in her hand and invited me in…you can imagine the rest! A series of penicillin shots? – MrJM - Rich Miller - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:22 pm: OK, let’s move along. I think I know who “Tom” is. And if I’m right, the only thing that happened was he got a glass of tap water. No ice. - L.S. - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:23 pm: “hand out literature at local malls, grocery stores and outside neighborhood sporting events” Mental note - never hire Responsa as a campaign manager. Face to face contact at doors is the only real field activity that moves voters and makes them remember down ballot candidates. Quick story - I once knocked on a door for petitions. The guy who answered was about 35 yrs old. He had no legs. Was in a wheel chair and had a KISS ARMY tshirt on. He sang along to the loud heavy metal playing from his stereo as he wheeled around his house and made sure his wife and elderly mother both signed. I asked him how he wound up in the wheel chair, his response: “Partying too hard” - soccermom - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:30 pm: I was knocking on doors in Wisconsin, accompanied by a reporter who was doing a story on the run-up to the recall. One of our pluses was a house with two dogs tied up on the porch. The dogs may have been small, but their teeth were ENORMOUS. Without fear, I approached the porch and calmed the dogs so effectively I should have been offered a show on Animal Planet. I then rang the bell, only to find that no one was home. I considered this a moral victory, and proved that our side had courage and fortitude. But the resulting article focused (with snark) on the dogs being quite small. I should point out that the reporter in question stayed well away from them. - Louis G. Atsaves - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:38 pm: While going door to door in a primary, I actually helped someone start his car in the 1990’s. He was charging his battery and couldn’t get the car to turn over. After checking the battery cables and noticing one was loose, we tightened it and the car started. I promised him not to charge him for the repair and he promised to vote for my candidates. It was a primary, and I later checked and he did pull a GOP ballot! - Responsa - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 2:56 pm: ==With all due respect, I don’t think you know what you are talking about.== I appreciate the “due respect” Anon-amiss, because it really softened the insult. I am sure the acceptance to personal canvassing varies from locale to locale. But I was talking today about my own experience. I do, in fact, have a fairly good handle on my own area –and I can assure you that house doors are rarely opened to strangers any more around this neck of the woods. My comment about campaigning at the local mall, grocery and neighborhood sporting events actually does work pretty well here and sometimes it can get a small group of voters interacting which is even better. While it may be not be as “efficient” as one would like, it’s a good alternative to door to door. - Louis Howe - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 3:03 pm: I’ve knocked on literally tens of thousands of doors. Most in my own campaigns in downstate Illinois, but thousands in presidential campaigns in Iowa, Missouri and Indiana. Twenty years ago I knocked on a door in a downstate community and a young woman with only a smile and a towel answered the door. I meekly gave her my campaign literature and left. Last year I married her. - L.S. - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 3:10 pm: Responsa - I don’t know the size, scope and nature of your race so I won’t say you don’t know what you’re talking about. But trying to make voter contact at retail stores etc vs. going to doors is not a contest. You have no way of knowing who you are talking to, if they live in your district, where to go and get them to vote on election day. If you’re standing in front of a grocery store and asking for positive voters addresses, I’d love to see a 8 hours of that vs. 8 hours of Saturday afternoon walking and see who gets more Yes votes in the bank. - pardon - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 3:43 pm: the number of hoarders out there always shocks me. - Alex Arroyo - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 3:45 pm: in 2001 working on an Aldermanic race in the east side of Aurora (rough part) we had a bunch of college kids from Batavia and Naperville come volunteer to canvass. We are in the parking lot of a grade school, and we heard shots fired! Me and the other girl from the hood knew to drop flat, the rest of the kids stood there and watch a guy in the middle of the street shoot up a car that was speeding away (and right by us) - Alex Arroyo - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 3:45 pm: in 2001 working on an Aldermanic race in the east side of Aurora (rough part) we had a bunch of college kids from Batavia and Naperville come volunteer to canvass. We are in the parking lot of a grade school, and we heard shots fired! Me and the other girl from the hood knew to drop flat, the rest of the kids stood there and watch a guy in the middle of the street shoot up a car that was speeding away (and right by us) - wordslinger - Friday, Oct 26, 12 @ 3:57 pm: Dear Penthouse Forum, you may not believe this, but it’s true…. Whoops, wrong blog. I think. Sorry, comments for this post are now closed.