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I was precinct leader in Reno, NV and as we got closer to the election, we were doing "swing voter" surveys--most of which were lists of registered Republicans or Independents or undecided Dems. I found two email reports I sent in to my "boss" at the Dem office. The reason I remember how many of the Repubs that had previously voted for Bush in 2000 was because of my notes about the conversations I had with some of these people who had voted Bush in 2000 and were going with Kerry in '04.
Some of their stories stick out--one in particular was of an elderly lady. She had known my Grandmother-in-law (a staunch Republican!). She was residing in, coincidentally, the same room that my Grandmother-in-law had resided in before her death at a retirement home in my precinct. She told me that she had spent a lot of time watching TV and no way could she vote Republican this year. She felt that from what she saw that had transpired over the preceding years since Bush was placed in office in 2000 felt like Germany during the early years of Hitler. We had an interesting discussion, and she was very candid because of my family name. I remember, too, that the majority of elderly voters in that complex were going for Kerry--I remember thinking, 'hey, they can really see the writing on the wall' and I thought it was their age and wisdom, or the fact that they had access to TV all day and night, being confined physically.
Here are two copies of the emails I sent back in Oct:
Sun, 17 Oct 2004 Precinct 526 36 Knocks/contacts attempted 13 Not Home 1 Refused to answer 6 Moved/wrong address 3 Call Back-sick 13 surveys completed 8 Kerry supporters 3 Bush supporters 1 Leaning toward Bush 9 Reid supporters 3 Not voting for Reid, 1 undecided 1 not voting for Kerry, Bush or Nader
AND Mon, 11 Oct 2004 Here are the latest results from the Swing Voter 526 list: 19 knocks 5 surveys completed 4 voters for Kerry 4 voters for Reid 1 voter for Bu__sh__ 2 had moved
It's a small sample, but these are merely two reports of many that I had sent during that time, as I was covering two precincts. It would be very interesting to see if our local Dem party did anything with all those polls--like did any one in the office sit down and find out how many Repubs said they were going to vote for Kerry? They had a wealth of info with all the surveys they had us doing and the GOTV efforts in our area. We were a battle ground state and we were inundated with all kinds of helpers.
Also, my SO is a Republican--never a Bush voter--but my in-laws and bros-in-laws voted Bush in 2000. My father-in-law, an influential Republican locally, couldn't volunteer for the Dem office, but did talk with and poll his friends and long term customers pre-election, trying to convince people to go with Kerry. He told me pre-election that his little unscientific poll was running about 7 out of 10 folks going for Kerry over Bush. Now, I can't say that all of these he polled had voted for Bush in 2000, but the likelihood of that is high. No, very high.
Anyway, don't know if it helps any, all this stuff I just spewed out atcha! But, it was cathartic for me anyway! Thanks for the memories!
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