I did Neighbor 2 Neighbor with my seven year old son this evening, and the title of my diary is the response from one neighbor (an unaffiliated voter who says he has voted all over the map but lately is voting a straight Democratic ticket, because "we have to get those Republican bums out of office").
Two houses down from me lives an Obama precinct captain. She's awesome--she's been "pestering" people on our street all year about first the primaries (our street sat together and voted for Obama together in the caucus) and now the coming general election. She brought me campaign literature and a Mark Udall sign. :>)
My seven year old watched several of the primary debates with us. (Re the Republican debate he saw: "Why are they all so mean?") He's very curious about this election, and he's a little annoyed that he can't vote. I asked him if he wanted to go with me, figuring I could talk to him more about the electoral process along the way. (By the way, he totally doesn't get the electoral college, though I guess many voters don't, either.)
We live in a liberal part of Colorado (two guesses, folks), and people were very much in support of Barack Obama. I emphasized to them that Colorado's role is very important this year and that it is critical that they make sure to go to the polls (or turn in their absentee ballots). I've volunteered in past elections, and I've never seen people this geared up about an election before. I let them know that the Obama campaign would probably be contacting them again before November and to try to be patient about all of the attention, that it's just about trying to make sure that everyone actually does vote, that anyone who needs help--registering, getting an absentee ballot, or getting a ride--gets it. The man with the response in my title was mowing his lawn, but he stopped mowing when he saw me coming, and he was more than happy to talk to us. He said he's unaffiliated, which is no big surprise, because there are plenty of these folks here. He said he has voted "all over the map," but that for the past several years, he's been voting a straight Democratic ticket. "I can't afford not to vote for Obama," he said. "We need to get those Republican bums out of office."
I also asked the folks I canvassed about Mark Udall, the Democratic candidate for Senate. I found it a bit curious that support there was not as unanimous. It's hard to tease out why... a couple of people didn't recognize his name (and folks, he's the Representative from our district, and uh, lives just a stretch down the road from our town). One woman said, "I know Udall, and I don't like him." She conceded that she would likely vote for him, though. I think from other things she said that she may have been to the left of Udall.
Anyway, my son was tired by the end and probably more confused than he was when we set out (probably not the best strategy to talk about the electoral college, but I was trying to explain why Colorado was so important in the general election this year).
I'll be heading out again on Wednesday, I think. A friend is having a birthday, and she wants us all to canvass with her. :>)