Registering Voters

"Bad officials are elected by good citizens who do not vote." ~ George Jean Nathan

When I set up my ironing board and chair in front of Raley's for the first time I wasn't sure what to expect. My hour and a half venture into registering voters turned out to be a really positive experience.

The first woman to stop wanted to switch from another party to Democrat. So as she filled out the form we chatted a little about Jeff Morris and Wally Herger. Another gentleman stopped by to pick up two forms, one for him and one for his wife who was at home. Several people stopped by who were already registered Democrats. One such young couple had not heard of Jeff Morris and they didn't know who Wally Herger was either. I had hand outs on Morris from his web site and I had also typed up a single page that listed Wally Herger's voting record. This proved to be a valuable resource to share with everyone who stopped by. In fact one gentleman who stopped to talk immediately voiced his displeasure with Herger and when I shared some additional facts about Herger's wealth and his investments in the oil industry he too asked for a couple of the handouts to share with others.

I had one woman walk by with her husband trailing her. As she spotted my sign that read "Democrats Register here to Vote" she announced loudly "No thank you!", but I had to chuckle internally as the husband trailing her wagged his finger in her direction and made a funny face to me, as if to say she shouldn't have been so rude and shame on her.

I started off wondering if I would just sit there and have people ignore me and avoid me. It was actually encouraging to have people stop and talk and show their interest in the political process and selfishly it felt good to feel I was making a little bit of a difference in my own way.