ALAN: We've just settled into our hotel in downtown Lynchburg after an amazing day on the campaign trail. We began the day in Richmond with a visit to the Virginia headquarters for the Obama campaign. We were greeted there by Liz Emanuel, the enthusiastic youth vote director for the state of Virginia. Liz walked us through the converted warehouse space that houses the "nerve center" for the Virginia operation. The office is a block from the campus of Virginia Commonwealth University, an appropriate location given the campaign's emphasis on registering college students. The office was full of people, mostly in their 20s, who are involved in everything from field operations to voter registration to special events and press coverage. It had the appearance of a well-run operation.
Liz then showed us the voter registration forms. I was struck by one question on the form that seemed palpably inappropriate: "Have you ever been judged to be mentally incapacitated?" That question is open to interpretation (of course it is...I'm a lawyer!), but the suggestion that a person who, for instance, has had a brief prior commitment to a psychiatric hospital is somehow ineligible to vote seems like a form of discrimination.
Liz then proceeded to tell us that after the campaign's successful effort in securing the right of college students to vote where they attend school in the state, some county registrars (the folks in charge of voting and elections) had issued written warnings that students whose parents live in another state but who register to vote in Virginia would risk losing coverage under their parents' health insurance plan. This apparently scared a number of students, at least initially, from registering in Virginia. The campaign went so far as to get confirmation from Blue Cross Blue Shield and other HMOs that it would not cut off health insurance coverage if a student registered where he or she attends school. Welcome to the real world of politics.
Some registrars, she said, are more demanding about the content of the registration forms. No putting down middle initials, she said....a full middle name is required in most counties. Put in an initial instead of the middle name and that person will probably be ineligible to vote. That seems a bit harsh.
We then got our marching orders: we were headed to Lynchburg where we would meet up with Jason Perkey, director of that city's campaign office. We bid farewell to Liz and hit the road.
I fancy myself as a "human GPS". I Google-mapped the directions on my iPhone and we headed west.
We got lost. Just a little lost, not a lot. I thought I'd memorized the directions I'd seen on the phone. I guess the memory starts to go at around age 49. I made the course correction just outside town and before you knew it we were in the beautiful Virginia countryside. It would be 112 miles to Lynchburg.
Lauren read for the first hour of the drive, and then she put down her book and we talked. I told her about the Reverend Jerry Falwell, who had been a pioneer in the blending of religion with politics. Reverend Falwell was born, bred and raised in Lynchburg, and founded Liberty University, which now has 11,000 students. He was widely credited with getting Ronald Reagan elected president in 1980. We talked about Revrend Falwell's vocal opposition to abortion, and what a hot button issue it was in his heyday of the late 1970s and 1980s, and remains today. We talked about tonight's Biden-Palin debate. Lauren has strong views about politics, especially Sarah Palin.
In that precious hour I could feel the legacy of political engagement telegraphing its way from father to daughter. It was one of those unforgettable moments. I've had those same kinds of moments with Ariel and you just want to bottle it up and harvest it.
We stopped at Wendy's in Appamattox (near the Civil War battle site) for lunch. We were wearing "Rock for Barack" stickers (which Liz had given us in Richmond). We got a few looks from the locals as we ordered. We were in the heart of the Southern Bible Belt....in other words, McCain country.
By 1:15 we had reached Lynchburg. This time the directions on my iPhone were just wrong. We recovered, but lost another 20 minutes in the process.
Jason greeted us warmly and gave us our itinerary. We would spend some time calling likely voters from lists, and later in the afternoon would register voters.
Jason walked us through the script for calling. The goal was to find out how the person was going to vote, in the presidential campaign as well as the campaign for the U.S. Senate (where two former governors, Democrat Mark Warner and Republican Jim Gilmore, are the candidates) I thought there was no way Lauren would get on the phone and call strangers. Was I ever wrong about that!! She immediately hopped on the phone and went down the list. She ended up reaching two voters, spoke to them, and took down the information. One of the voters said she was voting for McCain, but Lauren tried to convince her otherwise!!
At about 3:30 we headed up to the central bus depot to register voters. I had the clipboard with the registration forms, and Lauren had Obama literature to hand out This was the eye-opening portion of the day.
In about an hour and 15 minutes of work, we registered five voters. That was so rewarding! We simply walked up and down the sidewalk as people were waiting for buses, and shouted "Register to vote right here!" At least four people said they couldn't register, and I could figure out why without even asking...they had been convicted of a felony. In Virginia, you lose the right to vote if you've been convicted of a felony unless you petition the governor to restore your voting. One very nice gentleman said he had been convicted 30 years ago and had been out of prison for 27 years. I filled out the form with him not knowing at the time that he had to petition the governor. This seems like another rather harsh restriction on the right to vote.
I filled out another form for a man who looked to be in his 30s. He didn't have a phone number. This is not required but is only optional, and it became a problem only because I had forgotten to put his date of birth on the form, and that IS required. Fortunately another volunteer, who lives in Lynchburg, lives near the man and said she would stop by his house to get the information. Saved!
But the most interesting encounter at the bus depot was with a man who was eager to register. His only problem: he didn't know his social security number, which is also required. I asked him whether he had the number at home. He said he didn't think so. "But don't you file tax returns?", I asked, knowing that you need to know your SS# in order to file with the IRS. "Oh, I haven't filed tax returns in years." he responded. "Do you get government benefits such as Medicaid or Medicare?", I asked. He said that he did in fact get Medicaid. Well, I said, don't you need a social security number to get Medicaid? He said no. So here I had someone who was all set to register, and he didn't know his social security number and wouldn't know where to find it. Wow.
A number of people simply ignored us and didn't indicated whether they were registered. I saw in their faces anger, distrust and disinterest. Most of these people probably feel powerless and detached from the political process.
By 5:00, the place had nearly emptied out. We returned to the campaign office, where a volunteer called a friend who manages the Holiday Inn down the street and got us in there for half-price.
We're headed to dinner, then to a debate party at the Starlite Cafe just up the street. We'll be watching with other campaign volunteers. All in all, quite a day.
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