November
19, 2004
Getting
the Vote Out in New Hampshire: Reflections on My Involvement
in the Kerry Campaign
Chelsea Twohig ’06 |
By Chelsea Twohig ’06
The scene inside the small warehouse down a back alley in Keene, New Hampshire,
looked more like a Red Sox riot than the Democratic headquarters that it was.
Hundreds of people were crowding into the small room, trying to figure out
where they were supposed to be, and no one seemed able to tell them.
In the midst of the chaos, one middle-aged woman walked in the door, scanned
the commotion, and exclaimed, “This is awesome!”
Twenty-four other Mount Holyoke Democrats and I made the trip to Keene on Friday,
October 29, and luckily knew the general plan for the day. Get the vote out.
Spread the word. Remember to breathe. This would be the strategy for the rest
of the weekend.
After signing in, our group split up. Half were sent to dorm-storm at Keene
State College, where their mission was to put a door hanger that outlined a
student’s right to vote on every dorm room doorknob they could. The rest
of us, armed with a photocopied script and a list of numbers, were sent to
a back room to make cold calls to students.
In the back room there were not enough chairs, so we all sat on the cold cement
floor with our cell phones, frantically informing Keene Staters that Senator
Kerry would be coming to speak in Manchester the next day, and that we would
give them tickets and a ride for free. As simple as the job may sound, it was
quite tedious. It’s difficult to keep your sentences straight when the
room is echoing with the same words, said by other people reading from the
same script. The job is a thankless one. By the time we decided that we had
had enough, I had made more than 60 calls, and only two students were interested
in seeing the senator speak.
While combating voter apathy and trying to convert “Bushies” were,
in the opinion of the volunteers, assignments of the utmost importance, many
of the students, myself included, were there for more selfish reasons.
In the 2000 election, if Gore had won the state of New Hampshire’s four
electoral votes, the Florida fiasco would have been inconsequential. We saw
our role in Keene as one of a preventive nature. A blue New Hampshire would
have won the election in 2000, and we wanted to know that we had done all we
could to ensure a victory for Senator Kerry in 2004.
While discussing the prospect of New Hampshire going red in the election, my
fellow Mount Holyoke students took the possibility personally.
“My grades will have suffered for no reason,” said Catherine Thompson ’06,
who made the trip to New Hampshire every weekend in October.
Though the thought of four more years of a George W. Bush-run government was
too painful for most of the Mount Holyoke College Democrats to even contemplate,
Vice President Emily Lamia ’06 said that canvassing “gives you
faith in humankind.”
I agree. To be in the midst of more than 300 college students who all believed
in a common cause, who were willing to sacrifice their precious weekends to
have people hang up on them and have doors slammed in their faces, was empowering.
The beeping and thumbs-up signals we received from Kerry supporters as they
drove past strengthened our resolve. From my weekend in Keene, I realized that
people still care and are willing to unite to reach a collective goal.
Now that the election is over, I’m still happy that I trekked up to Keene.
The election results do not reflect my personal politics, but I take comfort
in the fact that the people I met, old and young alike, came together to fight
for a common purpose. I also take pride in the fact that, though it did not
get Senator Kerry into the White House, the state of New Hampshire went blue.
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