Election Day on the Streets, Vol. 2
Our ceiling flooded all of a sudden this morning, after our last post. But what's a little fallen, drenched ceiling when there's a once-in-a-lifetime presidential election going on, eh? We left our friendly maintenance guy to talk to himself, sop things up with rags, dry things out with lamps, and headed back over to the Baltic Room for a little E-Day madness. There were at least as many people there as had been there when we left. Signs were everywhere. Food and drink was everywhere. Someone made Obama cookies, as you can see (delicious! probably all gone now).
We were handed a script and set to calling people to annoy the crap out of them until they vote. Of course everyone had already voted—most of them for Obama. One guy expressed that he still liked Hillary better (we feel ya, dude), but was on his way to vote anyhow. Another woman told us she voted against Obama and hopes enough other people do, too, so that it matters. At least she's trying to make a difference. Every vote counts, after all.
A flock of folks were sent away with signs to stand on the corners by polling locations and hold up giant posters with Obama's face on them. Those posters have always looked a little creepily dictatorial to us. Still, now that the day is finally here, it's hard not to feel some pangs of sentimentality when we look at a man who's standing on the legacy of black America, the legacies of civil rights leaders, and taking the chance in this moment that history has given him. Polls close in two hours on the East Coast, and we're hunkering down now, getting ready for tonight's parties.
We know our efforts at scaring up Obama voters may have seemed a bit redundant in a stronghold like Seattle, but every little bit really does count. And if the Democrats further down the ticket benefit from the Obama bump, our work will have definitely not been in vain. Besides, we're hoping those Obama cookies will be available in grocery stores citywide starting tomorrow.
