The 2024 presidential election marks a rite of passage for my fourth child: knocking on doors to get out the vote, or GOTV. It’s not the first time he’s witnessed the importance I place on active citizenship — I often take my children with me when I vote, have them help me with leaflet drops and I’ve housed out-of-state election volunteers.
But during the last presidential election before my sons can vote, I take them with me to meet voters at their homes. We start off together and then, once they feel comfortable enough, I send my teenager on his own with half of the list of voters.
Yes, they are nervous when they get started. But people are overwhelmingly civil, if not outright friendly, and my sons quickly become as giddy as I do, checking to see if registered Democrats have already voted and, if not, making sure they have what they need, such as candidate and issue lists, and answering any questions they may have.
There are other ways to volunteer during elections, including nonpartisan jobs at polling locations. However, the bulk of volunteer work is done at the party level. Many people choose phone banking, which like many phone jobs post-COVID can now be done from a volunteer’s home.
But I prefer walking in the brisk autumn air and meeting Akron voters in person. Every time I walk in a neighborhood I normally drive past, I am impressed by the care people take of their homes. Flower and vegetable gardens, some only a few feet long, are now in their dwindling season and yet the fondness with which they were tended for several months is evident.
Prior to the voter registration deadline, GOTV efforts focus on registering voters. After the registration deadline has passed, volunteers visit registered voters of their party. In my decades of volunteering with the Democrats, I have gone out both before and after the registration deadline and have never had an unpleasant interaction. I enlist my children, however, once the registration deadline has passed and our list is of registered Democrats only. (Though there are no guarantees — I’ve met Republicans who switched their party affiliation in order to vote in the Democratic primary and then forgot to re-register with the Republicans afterwards.)
In 2012, President Obama and Sen. Sherrod Brown were up for reelection. Because Akron Public Schools are closed on Election Day, my son Hugo, who was three weeks shy of 16, was home. Our field captain gave us a paper list of Democratic voters near Hoban High School. My 10-week-old daughter, Lyra, was with us, bundled up and strapped onto my chest in an Ergo baby carrier. It was a sunny but very cold day and more than a few women ordered me to get into their warm homes “with that sweet baby.”
MiniVAN app helps volunteers canvassing neighborhoods
This year my youngest son, Leif, is three months shy of 15. On a recent Saturday we canvassed the streets behind the now-closed Walgreens on Copley Road. Things have changed since the 2020 election. Voter lists are on an app called MiniVAN, which automatically uploads information as volunteers take it down. It also identifies which voters have already voted, so volunteers can more efficiently focus on those who have not. I cannot split the list on the app with my son as I did paper lists, but the advances are well worth it.
We loaded MiniVAN onto Lyra’s iPad (the only one we own). And, yes, Lyra was with us. She knocked on the doors, I asked questions and Leif documented answers on the iPad. We were visiting with an elderly woman whose house was the farthest away from my car as any on our list when an unpredicted thunderstorm erupted.
“Do you mind if my children stay on your porch while I get my car?” I asked her.
“Not at all! But let me give you an umbrella,” she said before darting into her home. With her umbrella keeping me dry, I ran to my car while the kind stranger and my children continued visiting.
The act of explaining something can provide epiphanies, “aha” moments where suddenly the subject makes much more sense. Ask any teacher. Talking with voters, my teens explain why it is important to vote. Later, as adults, they have continued to volunteer in cities far from Akron because they deeply care about democracy, and also because it is quite fun.
In July at a conservative Christian event in Florida, former president Donald Trump told the audience that if he wins this fall’s election, “You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years, you know what? It’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.” The last thing I want to happen to our country is the elimination of voting, which would literally be an end to America’s democracy. So out I go with my kids and anyone else who will knock on doors with me.
Thiscol.
Whoopsie Piggle 