The Iowa Caucus is open to all residents who can simply show up at their local community location the night of the election. They can even register for their party at the door and then participate in the group nomination process with other neighbors in the community. They must be at the correct location based on their home address and inside by 7 p.m. This means that our efforts this weekend asking people to go to the caucus is so important. The more people we can meet and participate in the process the better the chances for Bernie.
The canvassing process starts building a contact database with volunteers who call to speak with a potential voter to determine their preferred candidate. Each contact in the database is tagged, for Bernie, for Hillary, or undecided. This database forms the basis for the turf lists that we will use as we canvass the neighborhoods to get out the vote. We mark the turf sheets with additional information about voter preference. Our goal is to create awareness for Bernie by listening to the people's concerns on the issues. Our lists are updated every day so that we can focus on undecided voters over the weekend and Monday to ensure that the committed voters show up to vote. Typically, in most elections, many voters make their decision on election day.
In the past, I have volunteered with the phone banking volunteers. It is a critical step in the process, but I do not enjoy it nearly as much as walking door-to-door, meeting people face-to-face, and listening to them talk about the issues. Walking and talking is much more fun!
As we walk from house-to-house and door-to-door, we meet people from Iowa and talk with them about the issues in Iowa, their candidate preference, and learn about the history from previous elections that began in Iowa. The landscape is beautiful with rolling hills and country views of the river. James spots a flock of geese and eagles. All our volunteers are flying together in perfect formation too!
We finish our turfs, pick up the other canvassers, and head back for a quick lunch and then to get additional turf lists for the afternoon. We stop to grab lunch, and I fill up the van with gas. At the gas station, I spend an extra minute to ask the attendant about the election. He is interested and did not know about the caucus process and location. He tells me that he might need to work, but I encourage him to go and show him the address using the location app on my cell phone. I tell him that “his voice matters and every single vote counts.”
Click Follow to receive emails when this author adds content on Bublish
Comment on this Bubble
Your comment and a link to this bubble will also appear in your Facebook feed.