by Chuleenan Svetvilas
On Saturday, May 10 I participated in the Obama campaign's 50-state voter registration drive. I had never registered voters before but when I got an email from Asian Americans for Obama informing me about the event I decided I had to do it. After all, I thought, if Barack Obama gets the nomination, he'll need all the votes he can get in November.
The email stated when and where we were to meet -- at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in San Francisco -- and that after a short training session, "we will send teams of volunteers to public events in selected neighborhoods." We were also told to "bring a pen, clipboard and an Obama button if you have them." I clicked on a link to RSVP for the 11 am to 3 pm shift. The other shift was 2:30 pm to 6 pm.
I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from Oakland to San Francisco's Civic Center stop -- about a 25-minute trip. At Civic Center, in the area in between City Hall and the public library, people were in the midst of setting up for some event. I wondered if it was an anti-war event because I saw some tent with something on it about people killed. Then I walked several blocks to the center carrying my messenger bag, which held my camera, clipboard, pen, and bottled water. It was a very hot day and I was sweating wearing my long-sleeved black Obama t-shirt and my "Asian Americans Pacific Islanders for Obama" button pinned to my hat.
The Ella Hill Hutch Community Center serves the Fillmore community providing outreach programs for students and adults and offering shelter to homeless people at night.
This picture shows the striking mural on one of the center's walls. It depicts African Americans who have made important contributions to San Francisco. The people sitting on the ground are some of the volunteers filling out paperwork and waiting for training to begin so they can start registering voters.
Here are people waiting to sign in and pick up their paperwork and clipboards. We also got to wear the requisite rectangular name tag sticker. And if you didn't have an Obama button, you got a round Obama sticker to wear in addition to the name tag one.
I met Monica and Ricky (pictured above with name tags) after I signed in and picked up my paperwork -- blank registration forms and a form I had to sign detailing my responsibilities as a voter registration volunteer. Monica came all the way from San Jose and Ricky came from Santa Clara. Like me, neither of them had registered voters before. Monica, who was born in Guatemala, said she came because she wanted to get involved in the campaign. "I have never been involved in something like this before."
She is a student at City College in San Jose. Monica told me that in June she would be traveling to Washington, D.C. with Bread for the World, a Christian organization aimed at ending poverty and hunger. She went to meet with representatives "to advocate the issue of global hunger." Monica says they were going to request a $5 billion increase on the current Global Poverty Act (S.2433) to cut in half the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015. I emailed Monica for an update on her trip and here's what she said:
"I was in training from June 14-16. The training consisted of workshops and lectures to be prepared for Lobby Day, which took place on June 17th at the Capitol. On this date, all the constituents from California met with Richard W. Harper, Jr, Legislative Assistant for Senator Dianne Feinstein and Ann Norris, Senior Legislative Assistant for Senator, Barbara Boxer. We presented them our request for the $5 billion increase and addressed the impact of Global Hunger in the US and how $5 billion could benefit us by decreasing illegal immigration and building up our reputation and economy."
Monica told me to mention that she encourages people to get involved and take action "on matters that affect us directly" and write their congresspeople.
Ricky revealed that he was a Republican. He says foreign policy is a big concern of his so he voted for Obama in the primary. "The only person who can best save the country is Obama," says Ricky, and that's why he came to register voters. Ricky also says that Obama is the "most humanitarian of all the candidates." He mentioned that he wanted to show his support so that eight years later, he could say that he had a small part in getting Obama elected. Ricky describes himself as a businessman with a website for musicians called chartspace.com. (In the Bay Area, it's hard not to run into someone who has a website or a blog.)
When I signed in, I was told that I would be going to the Civic Center area. So I went to sit over by the hand-painted sign that said "Civic Center" and had a circle with a few red lines like the campaign logo. Other signs said "Ferry Building," "Visitacion Valley," "Ball Park," and "Bay View."
Eventually we were told that our brief training would begin. One half went to one side of the grassy area and the other half, including me and my small "Civic Center" group of eight people, was near the "stage" of the building. Here we are on our feet, waiting to hear from Angelica, one of the folks who helped organize this event.
And here's Angelica telling us to be positive, don't debate people, and give the voter registration form to anyone who asked for one -- even if they said they were voting for McCain. And to make sure that people fulfilled the eligibility requirements so they wouldn't be disappointed should their registration not go through. In case you're wondering, you have to be a U.S. citizen, a resident of California, be at least 18 years old at the time of the next election,not be imprisoned or on parole for a felony conviction, oh, and my favorite "not currently be judged mentally incompetent by a court of law."
In addition, you have to write down your driver's license number, your state ID number, or the last four digits of your social security number on the form. This must be a new thing as I don't remember having to write down that info before.
My small group was led by "Team Captain" Jay, a young white man who had traveled to Texas and Pennsylvania for the primaries. He says he started working for the campaign two days after Bill Clinton started talking about race. "This is about the long term," says Jay. "It's about getting people involved. I've met people from 18 to 87 years old who are getting involved for the first time. That's why I'm here."
My group was racially diverse, including two white women from San Francisco -- Katie, a blond, pony-tailed, graphic designer wearing a short-sleeved black t-shirt that had "Obama" in red and "08" below in huge blue football-style numbers; and Gayle, a petite, dark-haired woman wearing the same Obama t-shirt as me. Gayle is semi-retired, does consulting work for higher education, and has a blog called Pastry Studio. "I've been involved since I saw [Obama] last September," says Gayle. "I went to headquarters in San Francisco and did phone banking."
It was exciting to discover that the majority of the people in our group had not registered voters before. We were nearly all first-time volunteers in this endeavor. I really started to feel that I was part of a movement. We had two young people in the group as well -- 18-year-old Filipino high school students Marc and Paula. Paula told me that she had worked the polls at the Super Tuesday primary and that she had donated to the Obama campaign. Marc said that Obama was "relatable" to people of different backgrounds, and like himself, Obama grew up with a single parent and spent time in another country.
Another member of my group was K.C., an African American woman who served as a precinct captain earlier this year. She also volunteered in June 2007 in the "Walk for Change" event in San Francisco. Here's a picture of K.C. (right) after our shift was over. Kenya, the young man with her, was a "Team Captain," overseeing the voter registration volunteers for the Fillmore area that day. He mentioned that he was a precinct captain as well.
As our group walked to the Civic Center area, Jay was figuring out who would go where and who had cell phones on them. Gayle didn't have her cell phone with her so I was paired with her. We were dressed alike -- black Obama t-shirts and jeans. I told Jay that some event was going on in Civic Center and he told us that we could start there. Katie and K.C. also joined us in working that event. The teenagers were sent to the area between the public library and the Asian Art Museum.
It turns out that the event was the Free Palestine, Peace and Solidarity Festival and it was difficult to find people to register there. I kept running into people who were already registered to vote or they were international students or immigrants who weren't American citizens. When I went around to the folks staffing various information tables, I got a couple hostile responses from people who were against Obama because of his support of Israel and because at that time, he had made some statement about not meeting with Hamas. I called Jay and told him about the challenges we were facing after about 30 minutes of walking up to strangers. In response to the Hamas statement, Jay told me that Obama didn't say that he wouldn't meet with Hamas, he said he wouldn't meet with them unless they recognize Israel's right to exist.
Then he decided to split us up. Gayle was to go to Hayes Valley and I had to traipse nearly 20 blocks (more than half of them uphill) to the Whole Foods store on California St. But just before we were about to leave, I finally found someone to register! A Chicana was staffing a table and she said there was some problem with her registration so she needed to fill it out again. So I gave her a form and a pen. It took her several minutes to fill it out. Then I checked to make sure she filled out all the appropriate sections, signed it and gave her the stub at the bottom. I didn't realize it would be so hard to find people to register. Gayle and I had wondered if the ten blank forms on our clipboards were enough. It soon dawned on us that it would be really hard to register ten people.
And on I went to Whole Foods, where I spent the next hour and a half or so trying to talk to as many people as possible. I've done canvassing years ago -- during a college winter break I went door-to-door in Massachusetts talking about the Toxics Use Reduction bill and getting donations for MassPIRG. Finding people to register to vote was a numbers game. I later found out that San Francisco has one of the highest rates of voter registration. But besides that, it was hard to get people to stop. They were either rushing into the store or they were on their way out with a cart or armful of groceries. Not an ideal situation for striking up a conversation with a perfect stranger.
I didn't count how many people I talked to because I was so focused on talking to people. But I know I talked to dozens and dozens of people during that time. That store is quite busy and seems to have its share of well-heeled, predominately white customers. I saw plenty of BMWs and Mercedes in the parking lot. Many of the people I talked to were already registered. A few weren't but said they didn't want to register. Some people wouldn't give me any eye contact. I think my Obama t-shirt gave some people the impression that I was campaigning for Obama. So I tried to tell them as quickly as possible that I was registering people to vote.
After about 45 minutes, I finally found someone who said they needed to register and she was grateful that I could register her. She had recently moved and needed to reregister. I was thrilled to hand over my clipboard. While she was filling out the form, I entertained her year-old daughter who was sitting in the grocery cart.
Then I went back to trying to buttonhole people and maintain a cheery smile despite the constant flow negative responses. A couple Whole Foods employees were on break so I approached the. One was already registered and another pointed out a fellow employee and told me that he wasn't registered and said I should ask him. So I went up to the guy and he said he had to get back to work so he couldn't fill it out. So I handed him the form and told him he could take it and mail it in himself.
Eventually I found a 20-something year old white guy who had never voted in an election before. I asked him if he would like to register to vote, holding out the clipboard. He paused and I held my breath, trying to act casual and not too excited (voter number three!!). Then he took the clipboard. And that was the last voter I registered that day before a Whole Foods employee came out and told me that he supported Obama but I needed to go over to the sidewalk about 100 feet away, and not be right in front of the store. I wasn't in a public area so I could see why he told me to move. I was standing in the store's parking lot.
So I stood around on the sidewalk but soon came to the conclusion that I wouldn't get much out of that. I called Jay and told him the situation and that I was essentially done for the day. It was after 2:30 pm and I was beat. I headed back to the center. At one traffic light as I waited for the light to change, a van rounded the corner and an older white guy leaned out and said to me, "I like your shirt." I thanked him and walked back with a smile on my face.
Back at the center I ran into K.C. who had been sent to the Harvest Urban Market grocery store south of Market. She didn't didn't have any luck finding folks to register. Then I didn't feel so bad about my low number. I dropped off my forms around 2:45 p.m. One of the Obama volunteers who was taking the filled out voter registration forms seemed a little glum about the low numbers and joked that at least it meant less data entry work.
I walked back to Civic Center so I could catch BART back home. Around 3:15 p.m. I ran into Marc and Paula. Marc had registered seven voters and Paula, four! I was duly impressed and told them that they did a great job.
I didn't have anyone take my picture when I was in San Francisco but Kofi took my picture when I got home. So here I am in my Obama t-shirt and with my clipboard.
I will participate in other voter registration efforts in the months leading up to the election. The key to winning this election is registering new voters.
On Saturday, May 10 I participated in the Obama campaign's 50-state voter registration drive. I had never registered voters before but when I got an email from Asian Americans for Obama informing me about the event I decided I had to do it. After all, I thought, if Barack Obama gets the nomination, he'll need all the votes he can get in November.
The email stated when and where we were to meet -- at the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center in San Francisco -- and that after a short training session, "we will send teams of volunteers to public events in selected neighborhoods." We were also told to "bring a pen, clipboard and an Obama button if you have them." I clicked on a link to RSVP for the 11 am to 3 pm shift. The other shift was 2:30 pm to 6 pm.
I took the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train from Oakland to San Francisco's Civic Center stop -- about a 25-minute trip. At Civic Center, in the area in between City Hall and the public library, people were in the midst of setting up for some event. I wondered if it was an anti-war event because I saw some tent with something on it about people killed. Then I walked several blocks to the center carrying my messenger bag, which held my camera, clipboard, pen, and bottled water. It was a very hot day and I was sweating wearing my long-sleeved black Obama t-shirt and my "Asian Americans Pacific Islanders for Obama" button pinned to my hat.
The Ella Hill Hutch Community Center serves the Fillmore community providing outreach programs for students and adults and offering shelter to homeless people at night.
This picture shows the striking mural on one of the center's walls. It depicts African Americans who have made important contributions to San Francisco. The people sitting on the ground are some of the volunteers filling out paperwork and waiting for training to begin so they can start registering voters.
Here are people waiting to sign in and pick up their paperwork and clipboards. We also got to wear the requisite rectangular name tag sticker. And if you didn't have an Obama button, you got a round Obama sticker to wear in addition to the name tag one.
I met Monica and Ricky (pictured above with name tags) after I signed in and picked up my paperwork -- blank registration forms and a form I had to sign detailing my responsibilities as a voter registration volunteer. Monica came all the way from San Jose and Ricky came from Santa Clara. Like me, neither of them had registered voters before. Monica, who was born in Guatemala, said she came because she wanted to get involved in the campaign. "I have never been involved in something like this before."She is a student at City College in San Jose. Monica told me that in June she would be traveling to Washington, D.C. with Bread for the World, a Christian organization aimed at ending poverty and hunger. She went to meet with representatives "to advocate the issue of global hunger." Monica says they were going to request a $5 billion increase on the current Global Poverty Act (S.2433) to cut in half the number of people living on less than $1 a day by 2015. I emailed Monica for an update on her trip and here's what she said:
"I was in training from June 14-16. The training consisted of workshops and lectures to be prepared for Lobby Day, which took place on June 17th at the Capitol. On this date, all the constituents from California met with Richard W. Harper, Jr, Legislative Assistant for Senator Dianne Feinstein and Ann Norris, Senior Legislative Assistant for Senator, Barbara Boxer. We presented them our request for the $5 billion increase and addressed the impact of Global Hunger in the US and how $5 billion could benefit us by decreasing illegal immigration and building up our reputation and economy."
Monica told me to mention that she encourages people to get involved and take action "on matters that affect us directly" and write their congresspeople.
Ricky revealed that he was a Republican. He says foreign policy is a big concern of his so he voted for Obama in the primary. "The only person who can best save the country is Obama," says Ricky, and that's why he came to register voters. Ricky also says that Obama is the "most humanitarian of all the candidates." He mentioned that he wanted to show his support so that eight years later, he could say that he had a small part in getting Obama elected. Ricky describes himself as a businessman with a website for musicians called chartspace.com. (In the Bay Area, it's hard not to run into someone who has a website or a blog.)
When I signed in, I was told that I would be going to the Civic Center area. So I went to sit over by the hand-painted sign that said "Civic Center" and had a circle with a few red lines like the campaign logo. Other signs said "Ferry Building," "Visitacion Valley," "Ball Park," and "Bay View."
Eventually we were told that our brief training would begin. One half went to one side of the grassy area and the other half, including me and my small "Civic Center" group of eight people, was near the "stage" of the building. Here we are on our feet, waiting to hear from Angelica, one of the folks who helped organize this event.
And here's Angelica telling us to be positive, don't debate people, and give the voter registration form to anyone who asked for one -- even if they said they were voting for McCain. And to make sure that people fulfilled the eligibility requirements so they wouldn't be disappointed should their registration not go through. In case you're wondering, you have to be a U.S. citizen, a resident of California, be at least 18 years old at the time of the next election,not be imprisoned or on parole for a felony conviction, oh, and my favorite "not currently be judged mentally incompetent by a court of law."In addition, you have to write down your driver's license number, your state ID number, or the last four digits of your social security number on the form. This must be a new thing as I don't remember having to write down that info before.
My small group was led by "Team Captain" Jay, a young white man who had traveled to Texas and Pennsylvania for the primaries. He says he started working for the campaign two days after Bill Clinton started talking about race. "This is about the long term," says Jay. "It's about getting people involved. I've met people from 18 to 87 years old who are getting involved for the first time. That's why I'm here."
My group was racially diverse, including two white women from San Francisco -- Katie, a blond, pony-tailed, graphic designer wearing a short-sleeved black t-shirt that had "Obama" in red and "08" below in huge blue football-style numbers; and Gayle, a petite, dark-haired woman wearing the same Obama t-shirt as me. Gayle is semi-retired, does consulting work for higher education, and has a blog called Pastry Studio. "I've been involved since I saw [Obama] last September," says Gayle. "I went to headquarters in San Francisco and did phone banking."
It was exciting to discover that the majority of the people in our group had not registered voters before. We were nearly all first-time volunteers in this endeavor. I really started to feel that I was part of a movement. We had two young people in the group as well -- 18-year-old Filipino high school students Marc and Paula. Paula told me that she had worked the polls at the Super Tuesday primary and that she had donated to the Obama campaign. Marc said that Obama was "relatable" to people of different backgrounds, and like himself, Obama grew up with a single parent and spent time in another country.
Another member of my group was K.C., an African American woman who served as a precinct captain earlier this year. She also volunteered in June 2007 in the "Walk for Change" event in San Francisco. Here's a picture of K.C. (right) after our shift was over. Kenya, the young man with her, was a "Team Captain," overseeing the voter registration volunteers for the Fillmore area that day. He mentioned that he was a precinct captain as well.As our group walked to the Civic Center area, Jay was figuring out who would go where and who had cell phones on them. Gayle didn't have her cell phone with her so I was paired with her. We were dressed alike -- black Obama t-shirts and jeans. I told Jay that some event was going on in Civic Center and he told us that we could start there. Katie and K.C. also joined us in working that event. The teenagers were sent to the area between the public library and the Asian Art Museum.
It turns out that the event was the Free Palestine, Peace and Solidarity Festival and it was difficult to find people to register there. I kept running into people who were already registered to vote or they were international students or immigrants who weren't American citizens. When I went around to the folks staffing various information tables, I got a couple hostile responses from people who were against Obama because of his support of Israel and because at that time, he had made some statement about not meeting with Hamas. I called Jay and told him about the challenges we were facing after about 30 minutes of walking up to strangers. In response to the Hamas statement, Jay told me that Obama didn't say that he wouldn't meet with Hamas, he said he wouldn't meet with them unless they recognize Israel's right to exist.
Then he decided to split us up. Gayle was to go to Hayes Valley and I had to traipse nearly 20 blocks (more than half of them uphill) to the Whole Foods store on California St. But just before we were about to leave, I finally found someone to register! A Chicana was staffing a table and she said there was some problem with her registration so she needed to fill it out again. So I gave her a form and a pen. It took her several minutes to fill it out. Then I checked to make sure she filled out all the appropriate sections, signed it and gave her the stub at the bottom. I didn't realize it would be so hard to find people to register. Gayle and I had wondered if the ten blank forms on our clipboards were enough. It soon dawned on us that it would be really hard to register ten people.
And on I went to Whole Foods, where I spent the next hour and a half or so trying to talk to as many people as possible. I've done canvassing years ago -- during a college winter break I went door-to-door in Massachusetts talking about the Toxics Use Reduction bill and getting donations for MassPIRG. Finding people to register to vote was a numbers game. I later found out that San Francisco has one of the highest rates of voter registration. But besides that, it was hard to get people to stop. They were either rushing into the store or they were on their way out with a cart or armful of groceries. Not an ideal situation for striking up a conversation with a perfect stranger.
I didn't count how many people I talked to because I was so focused on talking to people. But I know I talked to dozens and dozens of people during that time. That store is quite busy and seems to have its share of well-heeled, predominately white customers. I saw plenty of BMWs and Mercedes in the parking lot. Many of the people I talked to were already registered. A few weren't but said they didn't want to register. Some people wouldn't give me any eye contact. I think my Obama t-shirt gave some people the impression that I was campaigning for Obama. So I tried to tell them as quickly as possible that I was registering people to vote.
After about 45 minutes, I finally found someone who said they needed to register and she was grateful that I could register her. She had recently moved and needed to reregister. I was thrilled to hand over my clipboard. While she was filling out the form, I entertained her year-old daughter who was sitting in the grocery cart.
Then I went back to trying to buttonhole people and maintain a cheery smile despite the constant flow negative responses. A couple Whole Foods employees were on break so I approached the. One was already registered and another pointed out a fellow employee and told me that he wasn't registered and said I should ask him. So I went up to the guy and he said he had to get back to work so he couldn't fill it out. So I handed him the form and told him he could take it and mail it in himself.
Eventually I found a 20-something year old white guy who had never voted in an election before. I asked him if he would like to register to vote, holding out the clipboard. He paused and I held my breath, trying to act casual and not too excited (voter number three!!). Then he took the clipboard. And that was the last voter I registered that day before a Whole Foods employee came out and told me that he supported Obama but I needed to go over to the sidewalk about 100 feet away, and not be right in front of the store. I wasn't in a public area so I could see why he told me to move. I was standing in the store's parking lot.
So I stood around on the sidewalk but soon came to the conclusion that I wouldn't get much out of that. I called Jay and told him the situation and that I was essentially done for the day. It was after 2:30 pm and I was beat. I headed back to the center. At one traffic light as I waited for the light to change, a van rounded the corner and an older white guy leaned out and said to me, "I like your shirt." I thanked him and walked back with a smile on my face.
Back at the center I ran into K.C. who had been sent to the Harvest Urban Market grocery store south of Market. She didn't didn't have any luck finding folks to register. Then I didn't feel so bad about my low number. I dropped off my forms around 2:45 p.m. One of the Obama volunteers who was taking the filled out voter registration forms seemed a little glum about the low numbers and joked that at least it meant less data entry work.
I walked back to Civic Center so I could catch BART back home. Around 3:15 p.m. I ran into Marc and Paula. Marc had registered seven voters and Paula, four! I was duly impressed and told them that they did a great job.
I didn't have anyone take my picture when I was in San Francisco but Kofi took my picture when I got home. So here I am in my Obama t-shirt and with my clipboard.
I will participate in other voter registration efforts in the months leading up to the election. The key to winning this election is registering new voters.
