I never expected to talk to a felon smoking marijuana on the Sunday before Election Day.
Most of my local political work had been phone-banking and letter-writing as I was working at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, but that meant that I never got to fully experience what it meant to canvas and connect.
I had always wondered about the real differences in the impacts between canvassing and phone banking, and that turned out to be the existence of a real connection with people.
In a last ditch effort to turn out a few votes, I went out to canvas for N.C. House candidate Ricky Hurtado two days before Election Day.
It was very nerve-wracking at first because I didn’t want to make anyone mad or be confrontational, but I soon realized that the in-person conversations I was having with people made a real impact. Talking with someone in front of you doesn’t give them an opportunity to just hang up the phone and get on with their life.
Many people didn’t know how to vote, didn’t know where to vote, or just needed information.
One afternoon, my friends and I were walking to the next apartment block at our location when we heard yelling from two men in the parking lot, asking what we were handing out.
We quickly replied that it was voting information. They said they wanted some and we headed over.
These were two 30-ish-year-old men, leaning against a bright red sedan and smoking joints. They had big smiles on their faces as we handed them information cards and asked us which party we were working for. “A Democrat,” we said. They shook their heads and said they were both Republicans.
But then, one of my friends quickly jumped in.
“But you know [Hurtado’s] going to try to legalize marijuana,” he said.
The men were both still a little out of it and repeating their words a lot, but now said they would definitely vote for Rep. Hurtado.
We went on to discuss what they wanted in a candidate and learned that they cared about gas prices and the economy, but didn’t think anyone would do anything about those issues. We went through some candidates with them and gave them the information to make their own decisions.
They also told us that only one of them could vote (because the other was a felon), but that they didn’t know what their candidates stood for before then.
Moments like that prompt me to continue. Even though it’s a situation I laugh about now, we did give a few people information that I would like to think they acted on.
Talking to strangers can be very difficult, but is ultimately rewarding, as a face-to-face conversation gets more done than anything in front of a screen. Real connection will always be more impactful than anything else.
Image by Ananya Cox & Hammond Cole Sherouse/The ECHO
