Door-To-Door Skills
Posted: October 17, 2020 Filed under: Uncategorized 3 CommentsGirl Scout Cookies, Burbee seeds, Avon Products, Electrolux Vacuums, Warner -Amex Cable TV all things I sold door-to-door between the ages of seven and 20. I was trained by my Republican father to be a door-to-door selling machine. When I sold cable television I was the franchise expert at selling to the elderly. A lifetime’s of training just to get me ready for today.
Yesterday I voted. Since I am only allowed to vote once, despite what 45 encourages, I felt the need to do more. So I attended a zoom training for Fight for NC to help ensure that all Joe ballots get counted. In NC many absentee ballots get rejected for many arcane reasons. Voters who send in a ballot by mail is supposed to be notified so they can fix the mistake and have their vote count. Each county puts out a list daily of the ballots that are being disqualified.
So today I was given a list of 12 people to go to visit at their home and tell them, first of all that their ballot is disqualified, in case the county had not told them yet and then instruct them on how to fix it. The list I was given was for people in Butner, Creedmoor and Stem, which was a thirty minute drive just to get there.
The good news is with Covid, almost everyone was at home so I was able to talk to 10 of the 12 people I was assigned. The two who were not home had other family members there so I told them. Everyone was as nice as they could be from the old ladies in mobile homes to the couple in a big house. A few had already corrected their ballots, but some had no idea their ballots had been rejected and agreed to go to early voting to fix it.
Of the places I went Stem was the most beautiful country side, Creedmoor had the most Trump signs and I was disappointed I did not have time to stop at the Butner Correctional facility and see if I could speak with Bernie Madeoff. He can’t vote anyway so it would have been a waste of time. If I was not so pressed for time I would have stopped at the Southern States Store in Creedmoor to see if they had any baby chicks.
I may only get to vote once, but helping other people make sure their vote gets counted sure felt good. I am certain that when my father trained me to sell things door-to-door he never imagined that this is what I would use those skills for, but boy am I glad I have them to use for good.
The most disappointing flag I saw was on a house in the middle of Creedmoor. I couldn’t stop and take a photo of it, but I found a photo of it online. I don’t think I had ever seen an official presidential advertisement that used the word Bullshit in it. I can only imagine what parents of young ones have to say as they drive by this house. It is just so unpresidential, and at the same time so laughable because I have never heard so much bullshit out of any person, let alone President, as I have out of Trump for the last three and a half years.
If you want to go door to door, or answer phones let me know and I can put you in touch with the Fight for NC people who are really nice. This is not the year just to hope things go right.
Less Dana, More Good 
Voting in the US seems to be soooo complicated compared to my experience here in Australia, which is very cut’n’dried. Could you explain the ways a vote can be rejected over there?
My mother has been an electoral scrutineer in Australia for many years, and the only votes that she’s ever seen rejected are those where people have purposely drawn penises on their ballot. 😉
Once we register to vote at age 18, we don’t ever have to register again, and because we have privacy laws in Australia, we do not register to vote for a particular party (because that’s private) and no-one ever gets to find out who we voted for. So if we accidentally made a mistake (not really possible the way it’s set up), there’s no way anyone would turn up at our front door to tell us we should try again. That would freak people out over here (Again, privacy).
Voting is complicated here. Every time you move you must register to vote at that place because elections are a lot about local positions being filled. You register for a party affiliation, so that you can vote in that parties primary election to pick the representative from your party to run in the general election. I am registered as an unaffiliated voter so I can vote in either primary, but not both. That is illegal.every jurisdiction has its own laws about voting so it can be confusing. In NC, where I live, if you do a mail in ballot you have to sign the outside of the envelope and someone who knows you has to sign as a witness that says you are the person whose ballot this is. Before your ballot even gets opened it can be rejected because your signature or the signature of your witness do not match exactly the signature that is on your voter registration card. Then there are the erosions marks that people might put on their ballot like the one you described.
In NC your party affiliation is public record as well as information if your mail in ballot is rejected. I know it seems crazy.
Nice