(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Canvassing Report from Montgomery County, PA [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-10-15 The Harris campaign’s surge state program is definitely in full swing now, and if you live in or near a swing state it’s a perfect way to maximize your impact in this crucial election. Following is a report from the ground from a canvass I attended in Montgomery County yesterday. On the way in, I hit some traffic and lost a little money in tolls on the PA Turnpike, but overall the drive was pretty smooth. Places are easier to find these days with GPS, but even so the campaign had strategically placed yard signs at the last couple of turns before their local office just in case. When I got there, there were about twenty locals there, and ten or twenty more local people drifted in over the next few minutes. What’s the Situation on the Ground? Montgomery county is trending blue and the campaign’s goal in areas like this is to turn out every single voter it can and run up the score. To do that in the most efficient way possible, they’ve created this surge state program and started bringing in volunteers from out of state on buses. This is one of the areas the surge program is targeting, though with the ability to create your own carpools and have them advertised on Mobilize, one can argue that the idea is to carpet the entire state. After bus one of two showed up. Some volunteers were standing behind me Dems in Montgomery County that requested mail ballots outnumber Reps by a good bit, and almost half those ballots have already been returned (46.12%) whereas Republicans haven’t yet broken 40 percent (they’re at 38.66% returned). In terms of actual numbers of people, 92,194 Dems requested a mail ballot in Montgomery county, as opposed to 34,208 Reps. So we’re mobilizing a lot more people and still beating them at it so far. I expect this is going to mean that the 2020 effect is re-created, which is what the enemy is trying to do so they can claim fraud. But if we keep going at this rate, we will win PA with a wider margin than we did in 2020. Overall in the state, ballot return numbers look pretty good so far. There definitely aren’t enough young people voting yet, but they do tend to vote in person more and we’re actually still in process of registering them. With that said, the senior vote is bluer than I expected, so take a moment to thank the cosmos that Paul Ryan’s gone because he’s the only person I’ve seen that has ever been able to genuinely pitch eliminating Social Security and Medicare to people and get somewhat positive responses. Two buses rolled up with easily 40 people each. I was told one was from New York and one was from Washington, DC. The canvass was in cooperation with Moms Rising, so one of their people from DC and the Harris campaign’s womens’ initiative director were both there. One of the folks I met used to work in the Obama white house, and told me that they had sat out of politics a bit after that administration, but were back to being fully engaged this year. Vibes and Training: The most heartwarming thing was the number of people who brought their kids. New York schools get Indigenous Peoples’ day off (though they still refer to the holiday by that wanna be slave trader with no sense of direction), but instead of staying home because they had to look after their children, these folks decided to bring them along and give them a hands-on lesson in democracy. Some of the kids that were there made homemade signs, and one of them tied a sign to her scooter. It was a gorgeous (if windy) October day and from the moment I got to the staging location, everyone’s mood matched the happy and hopeful weather. There wasn’t even a whisper of fear or anxiety from anyone I met that day. If not for the political signage, the staff members, and the clipboards, you’d think you were at a family reunion barbeque. The on-the-spot training offered to all of us was incredibly efficient given that there were a couple hundred attendees. Because of the wind, we were advised against paper lists and there was a brief training on how to use the app they use for on the spot data entry during canvasses. It’s pretty easy to figure out, and there were definitely some otherwise technophobic people there who were able to get the hang of it. The best part of the training was the emphasis that we shouldn’t just leave if someone said that they’d vote for Kamala but hadn’t yet. We were repeatedly told to follow up by asking what their plan to vote is. This seems small, but it’s a major improvement and it’s recent. I don’t remember the emphasis on asking a voter how they plan to actually get to their polling place in previous cycles (there was some in 2020), but even without data to confirm I know it works. It gets the voter thinking about it and actually making a plan, which also makes them more likely to stick to that plan. A senior staffer speaking during training Now here’s where I got to magnify my impact: the campaign desperately needed drivers to take the reinforcements from the surge state program to their turf. I spoke with one of the directors of their out of state program and she told me that they have often have more people signing up than they expected and need to call on local help for drivers. So I got to drive a couple of volunteers from the city to their turf. They were nervous at first, but after the first couple of doors, they got the hang of it. Why is this important? Because if I’d gone on my own, I’d have hit maybe fifty doors (the turf was cut so each volunteer had between 30 and 70 depending on how far they had to walk). But I took two people who wouldn’t have been able to go out otherwise, and tripled the number of doors hit in an afternoon. As soon as we were done, I gave the out of state program director my number and signed up to be a driver for whenever they need more. You don’t have to knock on doors if you drive. So if you’re someone who can’t walk very far, this is an excellent way to contribute! And trust me, they need the help. As a reminder, you can also host a carpool if you’d rather not have strangers in your vehicle. But keep in mind they’re not really strangers, we’re all united for the same cause. And all the volunteers I’ve met so far have been nothing but pleasant. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll be joking together about the hideous Halloween decorations you just passed in no time. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/10/15/2277016/-Canvassing-Report-from-Montgomery-County-PA?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=community_spotlight&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/