Imagine your job involved spending hours
making phone calls to complete strangers
and repeating the same message over and
over. And imagine, in addition to doing that,
walking several kilometers a day (regardless
of the weather) to knock on doors and ask
people about their voting preferences.
Imagine that, for variety, you hand-wrote
thousands of direct mail messages urging
people to vote on Election Day.
Now imagine you don’t get paid.
Right now, thousands of Americans
enthusiastically perform this job. They work
as volunteers on a 2016 presidential
campaign. Some are too young to vote
themselves. Why do they do it?
Former Republican Party volunteer Nicolee
Ambrose, who is chairman emeritus of
the Young Republican National
Federation, says she was motivated by a
strong desire for change — still the most
important factor driving today’s campaign
volunteers.
Nicolee Ambrose and fellow volunteers
(Courtesy of Nicolee Ambrose)
“If you have the desire and there is a well-
organized campaign that can put you to
work, you can make amazing things
happen,” Ambrose said. “Instead of being
frustrated and sitting at home complaining,
you can get out there and make a
difference.”
Donating time and effort makes your
opinions count more than they would if you
simply voted — “[There are] hundreds, if
not thousands, of people you can influence
too,” she said.
Courage and camaraderie
Grace Choi, a former Democratic Party
volunteer, spent weekends in 2008
traveling from her job in New York City to
Pennsylvania, where she knocked on doors
to ask residents how they planned to vote.
She was just out of college, inspired by
then-candidate Barack Obama, and excited
to “play a role in making the community
that we live in better.”
Grace Choi gives instructions to
Democratic volunteers as they prepare to
knock on doors. (Courtesy of Grace Choi)
As a second-generation Korean American,
Choi realized the importance of civic
participation when she noticed that many
in her community were not registered to
vote. There was very little information
on the candidates or the issues in the
Korean language.
For a beginner, engaging strangers on their
doorsteps can be intimidating. “I’d talk
about why I support the president, and my
own personal journey and why I am
spending my personal time in front of their
door,” she said. “When you talk about your
own personal story, they can’t invalidate it
as easily and they can’t brush you off.”
For Choi and Ambrose, the fun moments of
volunteering still stand out. Long hours
spent with fellow volunteers making phone
calls or handing out campaign literature in
the rain led to lifelong friendships and
“funny stories to share with those people
for the rest of your life,” Ambrose said.
Besides the camaraderie, there is the strong
feeling that those hours made a difference.
“I knew that every vote counted. All those
calls and knocking on doors that I did was
a drop in a bucket compared to the big,
massive machinery of volunteering, but I
just knew every vote matters, every precinct
matters and every state matters. … I was
taking part in something bigger than
myself,” Choi said.
“It is a wonderful, energizing thing to do,”
Ambrose sums up.
https://share.america.gov/campaign-volunteers-know-that-votes-matter/?utm_source=iipeditorial&utm_medium=englishsmf&utm_campaign=u.s.elections&utm_content=everyvotematters.justaskacampaign