Went canvassing yesterday.

I went canvassing yesterday in my new neighborhood with a local organizing group a representative of which I had met at a block party a few weeks earlier...

I'm very impressed with the groups organization - I was feeling a tad under the weather, so she gave me the precinct where their offices and my apt. is, so I could do it for however long I wanted and then be right there to go home - and most of all, all the people I met when I was canvassing seemed to know the group, including a lot of the (black) people in the low-income 6-story apartment building on my route. The group's rep had told me how they've formed tenants rights associations to put pressure on negligent landlords and lobbied for new building complexes to have low income units set aside, and you can tell that people know about that and appreciate it.

I signed up like 4 people to maybe help people get to the polls on election day (2 black women and 1 black man, and 1 hispanic woman), and reminded a ton of people to vote, and they all seemed to know that it was a crucial election.

One of the units I knocked on was the unit of this older flamboyant (gay) (white) guy who had a lot of friends over, and when we were talking and the guys in his apartment were all saying they were voting, and when I asked the guy at the door if he wanted to volunteer on election day to get people to the polls, one of them butted in from the background and shouted out, "But he's early voting, and he can't volunteer because we have a date on Tuesday!", and so I mock-apologized to the guy at the door and was like, "Oh, sorry for getting in between you two," and winked.

I figure, at least it'll get them talking about voting maybe to other people.

One of the other women in the unit was (black) and was also telling me that through a program she was able to move from living on the street to the low income housing, and is an election day on Tuesday!

Another woman was (young) and (black) and super-tired, but agreed to volunteer on election day, and then was like, "Sorry for being so tired, but I just got off of work, and I feel more tired just being near your energy," and then I told her that I was actually feeling low-energy because I had a mild cold.

I also discovered that the top two floors of the apartment building, which I've walked by a ton of times, is actually a residential drug treatment center of some state program!

I was going to volunteer today but am feeling under the weather, but I'm def. volunteering Mon. and for like 8 hours on election day.

I *love* how this organization knows how to use volunteers, it's like the opposite of the student union.