Thirsty for Change

Just like she told me, Bernice, an 86-year-old retired teacher, was waiting outside her green shuttered single-family house in suburban Cincinnati. She had not received her thrice-requested absentee ballot (she walks slowly with some difficulty), and with the deadline looming I offered her a ride to vote early.

Bernice, who as a black girl growing up in Montgomery, Alabama, worked in the cotton fields, told me about her faith in God as we drove downtown. She also told me that she had sat out the last election and hadn’t really been excited about a candidate since the campaign of Robert Kennedy.

This time would be different. When we arrived at the Board of Elections, the line snaked out the building and two blocks down the street. I took Bernice to the front of the line and the staffers got her situated in a chair and helped her with her ballot. That would take some 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, I had been asked by the campaign to work the line, ensuring that people who are there to vote for Barack Obama stay and vote. The line was about an hour long, and a lot of people were taking time off from work. If they leave the line there’s a real possibility that we will lose their vote.

So I brought them water, asking “who is thirsty for change?” Schtick is important when working the line. You want people to have fun, though in this case everybody seemed to be in good spirits. The line had no defectors.

I also handed out “I voted early for Barack Obama stickers whcih were accepted by 90% of the approximately 300 people I talked to that day. And, most important, I signed up volunteers for the critical get-out-the-vote effort offering free pins and the strangely hard-to-find bumper stickers as incentives.

The early voting at Hamilton County is not be representative of overall voting. The Board of Education is located downtown where many minority and lower income people live and work. People in more Republican leaning suburban areas of the city are used to voting at their polling places and are waiting for Election Day.

Still, it’s a sight to see in Hamilton County: hundreds of fired up voters supporting the Democratic standard-bearer, and some uncomfortable Republicans. I did meet one pair of friends who were waiting in line to cancel each other’s vote. They showed affection and good humor to one another. I told the Obama supporter she had about 30 minutes left in line, and should use all of it to persuade her friend to join the winning team. And I offered him a button, which he refused with a smile.

Tune in later today for photos and updates from the line.