Campaigning for our rights

The community of Royal Oak, north of Detroit has a human rights proposal on the ballot next Tuesday. It would ban discrimination in public accommodation. Royal Oak tried this back in 2001, but it failed. As before, the city council approved the ordinance then a Fundie group gathered enough signatures to force it onto the ballot. Also as before, I helped out on the campaign.

This afternoon was my time to help. Since it is so close to election day the goal wasn't to convince anyone. Instead, my job was to ask people how they were going to vote and if for the proposal, remind them to vote and even ask if they have planned their day enough to make sure they vote. We also had campaign literature that showed their voting location.

I and a partner went to one particular precinct in the northeast corner of the city. We had several sheets and a map of about 35 houses each. My sheets were for one side of the street and hers were for the other. This was not every house in the area, only those who had, over the previous few months, given some indication they might be for our rights. That meant we walked on by the house with the big "Vote Biblically!" sign.

Since it was a Saturday afternoon there weren't many people around to answer the door. The sky was overcast, the temperature just under 50F. It drizzled on and off, so I used my umbrella a few times.

The second house I knocked on a man came to the door and said, "Michigan or Michigan State?" I responded, "Neither." Yeah, the afternoon of the big football game. He sighed and asked what I wanted. I gave the name of the voter on my list and asked to talk to her. "She can't come to the door right now, we're watching the game. Perhaps you can come back later." So at the end of the afternoon I went back. Fortunately, it was near my car. No luck. Though it was three hours later, they were still watching the game. Still can't come to the door. Fine, I get that you don't want to talk to me.

Though our lists were of those who had given some indication they were for our rights, I did talk to a woman who will vote against us (at which point I said, "Thank you," and left) and another house had changed owners.

We didn't get to the last couple houses on our lists before we ran out of time. Back at campaign headquarters we debriefed. Then I asked the worker about expected turnout. Since this is only a city election they expect only 10,000 voters to show up. As of this evening they have a firm commitment of 4,000. The whole thing will depend on turnout.