GOTV OH: Wrap up and reflections
Nearly six weeks ago, Tiffany and I conceived of a plan to help get the vote out for the upcoming US general election. We decided to focus our efforts on marginalized communities in the state of Ohio. Ohio is now a swing state in the US presidential election, is where Tiffany grew up, and is where I met her in college.
For nearly four weeks now, we’ve been executing our plan. Our base has been Tiffany’s childhood home in Norton, Ohio. Her dad and brother have welcomed us — including our 11-year-old labradoodle, Seger—into their lives for this period of time and their quiet sacrifices are not lost on us.
During our time here, we’ve focussed mainly on in-person GOTV events. However, we’ve also tried our hands at phone banking and social media monitoring as avenues for continuing to help even after we return to California.
I was fortunate that my very first experience volunteering at a GOTV event was under the mentorship of Cynthia Peeples, who serves on the Board of Directors of the League of Women Voters’ Hudson, Ohio chapter. Cynthia is a go-getter, and she had me up and running as a confident yet polite GOTV volunteer in no time!
Since that first event, Tiffany has also joined me at various other in-person GOTV volunteer events. Together, we’ve now volunteered at fourteen in-person GOTV events totaling sixty-four person-hours across four cities (Akron, Dayton, Cleveland, and Stow). Conservatively, we estimate that we’ve interacted with a little over three hundred people in all, checking their voter registration status, checking their absentee ballot application status, helping them register to vote, helping them request their absentee ballots, helping some change their addresses, and giving many information on their voting options for the weeks leading up to Election Day.
Most of our interactions have been positive. However, we’ve also had a number of difficult and sobering conversations with people whose plight remains unaltered no matter whom they vote for. They have lost their faith in the democratic process. Many of these folks told us they would not be voting in this election.
On the whole, we feel like we’ve made a small positive impact over the past four weeks. For this, we are grateful to various area organizations who brought us into their fold and put us to work. In particular, we’d like to thank Ohio Votes; the regional coalitions: Akron Votes 2020, Cleveland VOTES, and Miami Valley Votes; and the Ohio chapters of the League of Women Voters and UUTheVote.
With that our journey in Ohio nears its end. We must now return to California and attend to some semi-urgent matters that we nervously put off for our GOTV trip. We’ll be watching from afar as Ohio’s election story unfolds over the next thirty-three days. As results start coming in on Election Night, our thoughts will turn not just to the nation’s future but also to the individuals we’ve met during our time here.
