JACKSON, Mich. - On Friday morning, I awoke at the insanely early hour of 5 a.m to meet my fellow College Republicans by the North Side shuttle stop at 6 a.m. We had been deployed by the RNC 72-Hour Task Force to Jackson, Mich. to campaign for President Bush. We drove to Reagan National Airport, caught our flight, and before we knew what was happening, we landed in Lansing.
Once we reached Jackson, about an hour away from Lansing, we were put to work right away. We were divided into groups of five or so, and each group was assigned a county. We met with local volunteers, and set out a plan for the next few days. Branch County was in dire need of people to work the phones, and had hardly sent any volunteers door to door. Being an area with a high concentration of Republicans, the local Republican Party had grown somewhat complacent, and did not have effective get-out-the-vote measures in place. It was now the AU College Republicans' job to organize something for the county before the election. We started making calls that night, asking people who they planned on supporting in the election, and if they were interested in volunteering.
The next day, all of the AU CRs headed to Spring Arbor, Mich., to meet with a local door-to-door coordinator. We set out with maps, pamphlets and walking lists for the area surrounding the towns of Spring Arbor and Battle Creek.
While going door to door, we often encountered interesting people. Most did not answer their doors when we knocked, but the few who did seemed to be mostly Kerry supporters. One gentleman slammed the door in our faces, and then promptly opened it again to shout expletives at us, and tell us why we were "jerks" for coming to his door. Most people, however, were polite.
Back at Branch County, we continued to make phone calls until about 9 p.m. Phone banking is one of the most boring activities of any campaign. Sitting for hours calling complete strangers and trying to convince them to at least listen to you is no one's idea of a good time.
Responses to our questions ranged from the effusive "thank you so much for volunteering. I don't know what this country would do without you" to "why don't you go jump in a lake" to "grab your purse, walk on down to the Kerry/Edwards office, and start making some sense." Sometimes we had the misfortune of calling a deceased individual, and then had to apologize to the remaining family members for disturbing them. But phone banking is a necessary evil, and has proven to be highly effective in prior campaigns.
Finally, Election Day came. We woke early and headed to our counties for last minute efforts. Instead of Branch County, I stayed in Jackson and headed out to the surrounding area to go door to door. In the first neighborhood I canvassed a trailer park, only a handful of people were home, and most were non-voters. The few voters there were for Kerry and, after about three hours, my partner and I declared the area a lost cause and moved on to a more Republican friendly neighborhood.
Here, in contrast, most people had already voted, and a large proportion had voted for Bush. Polls opened in Michigan at 7 a.m. and were scheduled to close at 8 p.m. We headed back to the headquarters, and stayed on the phones until 7:45 p.m.
"The state was so divided, it was frustrating," said Helen Nissan, a freshman in the Washington Mentorship Program. "Sometimes it felt like a lost cause, but changing one man's mind one and a half hours before the polls closed made the whole experience worth it. It was just an amazing experience."
Tension mounted as the evening wore on and, around 6 p.m., a group of AU College Republicans was sent to Detroit to poll watch. I had never before realized the extent to which individuals will go to gain votes in an election in the United States. This group reported back that people were stuffing ballot boxes, recycling people through lines, not checking IDs to verify voter eligibility, and handing out paper ballots to people waiting in line.
The AU students were constantly calling the Republican National Committee legal hotline to challenge votes. Around 7:30 p.m., Jason, the field director for Jackson and the surrounding counties, informed us that a lawsuit was being filed in Detroit by the NAACP to keep the polls open until midnight, to allow "disenfranchised" minorities to vote. We were all on the watch, waiting to hear the decision. If it went through, we were all going to head to Detroit to challenge every vote after 8 p.m. and to watch the ballot boxes in transit. Thankfully, the suit was rejected in court and polls closed at 8 p.m.
We settled in to watch to election on a small TV, and rejoiced with every state Bush won. We all held our breath, waiting for the crucial states of Florida and Ohio to be called. When NBC called both for Bush, we all screamed in joy. We waited tensely for Michigan to be called, but it was not to be for quite some time.
Our election-watching party continued until 4 a.m., when we finally packed up and headed back to our hotel for a paltry three hours of sleep before we were back to the Lansing airport. Upon learning that Michigan had been called for Kerry, we were disappointed, but we realized that our efforts went toward the greater challenge of reelecting Bush, and were not for nothing.
Lauren Cooper is a sophomore economics major and member of the College Republicans.
