In political campaigns the next few days are known as the get out the vote effort. Since I am working it is hard to participate as much as I have in years past. It also has not helped that I’ve been fighting off a cold for the past week or so and it’s gotten worse over the past couple days. However I am hoping to make it to a sign waving visibility for my state representative tomorrow morning. He is a good guy and these events are a fun way to get exposure and let people know that locals are enthusiastic about the campaign.

However Saturday the real hard work begins when I spend the weekend (and Election Day itself) door knocking for votes. It is a bit tiring but I enjoy meeting new people, especially if you get a good turf and the weather is nice. Door knocking is one of the most effective ways of turning out votes so I know that my contribution to the campaign is valuable. This fun statistic comes from another blog:

Did you know….

That a voter who you knock with a GOTV message on election day is 10% more likely to vote AND other registered voters in their household are 6% more likely to vote, even though you didn’t actually talk to them?

I also plan to phone bank on Monday which requires less effort but can also be more boring and a bit less effective. People on the phone also seem to more easily find the license to be irate in spite of the fact that they chose to answer it. Sometimes their arguing takes more time than it would have taken to simply let us know if they support us or not. I know people do not enjoy getting the calls all the time but if people dislike phone calls I think they should simply not answer them when it says “Chris Murphy for Congress” or something like that. Many phones have features that let you send them to a voicemail or answering machine, or you can silence the ringer during times you do not want to be disturbed. Yet for reasons that are unclear it seems many do not take advantage of these features. They seem to be slaves to their technology.