Well, now those of us with dual citizenship and dual affinities have two elections to watch! Canadian Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, has dissolved Parliament and called an Election.
Back in pre-historic times when I worked on elections in Toronto’s affluent North End, we pounded the pavement with low tech methods designed to get the vote out. This was in the early 60s.
Let me explain briefly how we did that.
First, each “canvasser” was handed a (paper) voting list, some campaign pamphlets and a couple of pencils. Each list probably covered two square city blocks. (North Toronto has “city blocks” – nice squares of established two and three storey homes on approximately 40 to 50 foot lots.)
Each of us went up and down the sidewalks, walking up the paths and knocking on the front door of each house.
Now, when I knocked on the door, I was ready. When the person opened the door, I said,
“Hello, I am working for John Doe, your Progressive-Conservative candidate.” I handed the householder the piece of literature and stayed quiet to observe the other person’s reaction.
There were three possible reactions:
“I am not interested.” (Take that as maybe, uncommitted or not voting.)
“I am voting Liberal. (Take that as a “NO”.)
“Ah, yes, I really like that guy and I am going to vote for him! (Take that as a “YES”.)
Now, if the person wanted to chat about the PC candidate, of course, I stayed and probably told them where the next rally would be. I probably showed the telephone number on the brochure so they could phone, offering support for candidate in a more industrious way.
After the householder closed the door and I had walked down the steps and down the path to the sidewalk, I marked my Voter’s List with the appropriate “uncommitted”, definite “NO’ or definite “YES”.
After doing the canvass, the Voter’s Lists were turned in and someone else at Party Headquarters would make a copy (probably manually) on another Voters List of my comments. A worker would look up the telephone numbers, note them beside the possible PC voters’ names, and the Voter’s Lists were kept for Election Day.
On Election Day, we had workers who were there, marking off who had voted. We were right there. I have to tell you that we did not know who they voted for but if it was someone we had shown as likely to vote PC, which was a plus!
Now, about 2:00 to 3:00 o’clock in the afternoon, we had more workers ready to “get the vote out”. We would look at the people who had been assessed as voting PC and if some had not yet voted, we telephoned them.
“This is Mary from Mr. Doe’s office and we notice you have not yet voted! Could we give you a ride to your polling place?”
For most people this was really just a reminder, and the response was generally that when hubby came home, they were going to vote together.
Some people, especially seniors, indicated that they would be happy to be picked up and driven to the polling station where they would vote (hopefully for our candidate.)
Then, there was my Aunt Helen. I’m pretty sure she was a staunch Liberal. She would tell me the next day that she had voted and indicated she had been driven to the poll. When I would ask her who drove her to vote, she would answer,
“The party with the most handsome drivers, of course!”
You gotta love that answer. However, it also shows that the system may not have been flawless!
My point is that all the campaigning and all the opinion polls will not determine who gets voted in. The bottom line is getting the people to vote. That means absentee ballots for those away at school, early voting for those in retirement communities and those who know they will be away. We also must get young people now eligible to vote to register and reminding them to actually get out to vote!
Barack Obama has a history of getting young people and new citizens registered. He has done this in the past and is doing it now! So, it behooves Mr. McCain’s people to do the same thing.
Getting the Vote Out – That is how to be elected President of the United States!
