Supporters Travel Out of State To Aid Obama

Brian J. Mendel ’15 knocked on the front door, and, after waiting a few moments, jammed a Vote Obama flyer into the door’s handle, other pamphlets already crammed there.

“Welcome to the life of a New Hampshire voter,” he said.

Last weekend, about 35 Harvard students drove an hour and a half to Rochester, New Hampshire, hoping to secure votes for President Barack Obama in the crucial swing state as election day draws near.

Donning Obama campaign pins, Mendel and Peter E. Menz ’15, a Crimson arts editor, roamed the sleepy streets of Rochester, periodically referring to their list of about 30 assigned voters, autumn leaves crunching beneath their shoes as they walked from to door to door.

The presidential election is fewer than three weeks away, and polls suggest that New Hampshire voters are torn between the Republican and Democratic presidential candidates—a fact that worries Democrats since Obama easily won the state in 2008.

With Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney neck-and-neck in New Hampshire and nationally, front stoop conversations such as these could be the difference between Obama’s success or failure.

“[It’s] kind of a nerve-wracking experience because they have the election in their hands,” Harvard Democrats Campaign Director Simon M. Thompson ’14 said of New Hampshire voters. “You have to let people know that this is urgent.”

A CALL TO ARMS

As the yellow school bus carrying Harvard students rolled into Rochester, Daniel R. Ki ’15, head coordinator of Harvard for Obama, stood up to address his fellow students, many of whom were still groggy from Friday night escapades.

“A typical response is no response at all,” Ki warned the volunteers, drawn from the Harvard for Obama team, the Harvard College Democrats, as well as the Kennedy School and Law School.

“Every door that you knock on does make a difference,” he said, while telling canvassers that typically only about 5 percent of residents will even answer their doors.

The bus came to its destination as Ki made his last points. It was a little after 2 p.m. Canvassers filed into Rochester’s Democratic campaign headquarters, a cozy office with blue walls plastered with posters and charts. A countdown reminded volunteers how few days remained in the race: 17.

Carol Shea-Porter, an N. H. Democrat running for the House seat that she lost two years ago, was the first to address the Harvard volunteer crew.

“You’re the reason that we’re going to win,” she said, noting the significance of volunteers in her 2006 and 2008 campaigns for Congress.

“Who wants to go forward?” she said. She was greeted by cheers and applause.

Mike, a campaign coordinator based in New Hampshire’s Democratic headquarters, recalled how 7,211 votes separated Bush from Gore in 2000. Obama’s win or loss in New Hampshire could decide the election, he said.

New Hampshire is “carrying the United States forward,” he added. “This is the most important thing you can do.”

HITTING THE STREETS

Riled up after the pep talks, Harvard students set forth on the small, mostly empty streets of Rochester, a town of 30,000 nestled on the Maine border.

Volunteers carried a roster of voters, a map of Rochester neighborhoods, and a stack of promotional pamphlets and flyers.

This canvassing effort, Harvard for Obama’s third trip this fall, was markedly different from earlier attempts to win New Hampshire votes. Swaying undecided votes was only a secondary focus this time. Instead, organizers told volunteers to shore up already-won votes by urging registered Democrats to turn out at the polls on Nov. 6.

This was, in part, due to lackluster enthusiasm for Obama as compared to 2008, canvassers said.

“It was kind of a different race,” Stephanie A. O’Connell ’13, a Harvard for Obama coordinator who volunteered in New Hampshire in 2008. Four years ago, Obama was “a new figure, not wrapped in politics. Now, a lot of it is about the issues,” she said.

Mendel and Menz, both veteran canvassers, walked out of campaign headquarters, stopping in the parking lot to chart their route.

The duo encountered a variety of reactions to their attempts to win blue votes.

At the first house that they visited, a disheveled middle-aged man in a red bathrobe emerged, holding back a few barking dogs.

“I don’t vote,” he said promptly, shutting the door behind him.

Drawing from a script provided by campaign headquarters, Mendel and Menz soon settled into a routine, taking turns to speak to voters.

“Can President Obama count on your vote on election day?” they asked again and again.

Often, no one would be home, and after a few minutes of tapping door knockers, they would leave promotional flyers under doormats and in door handles.

Menz and Mendel soon found themselves at a multi-family home. The pair, unable to find the specific front door they were looking for, tried the garage door.

Moments later, the door rose, stiff wheels creaking as it came up. A woman emerged and responded enthusiastically to the questions.

“Oh, I like him. I’m going to vote for him,” the woman said.

Another man, his baby in one arm and his young son by his knees, told Mendel and Menz that he planned to bring his older child to the voting booth along with him.

Mendel had found during past experiences that “most people just really don’t want to talk to you.” This effort, however, was much more successful: “The people that we did talk to didn’t tell us to go away,” he said.

“It was a pretty friendly neighborhood,” Menz added.

A VOICE ON THE GROUND

At 4:30 p.m., students began to gather in the garage of the campaign headquarters, grabbing snacks and swapping stories.

“I had a great experience,” said Micaela Pacheco Ceballos ’15, a campus coordinator for the Harvard for Obama team. “Out of the 40 houses that we visited, we talked to 10 people.”

Pacheco Ceballos said that the “stark differences” between the candidates and a sense of “civic duty” had motivated her to get involved in the campaign, mentioning that she had successfully reached out to a young, first-time voter.

“Even if it’s just one guy that asked to register to vote, we made a difference,” said Rebecca V. Park ’16, who campaigned in 2008 with her parents.

Harvard for Obama Campus Coordinator Sylvia A. Percovich ’15 canvassed although she cannot vote as she does not have U.S. citizenship.

“I could participate and give back to what I consider my country,” said Percovich. “If I didn’t have a voice in the ballot, I can have one on the ground,”

Percovich said she was pleasantly surprised by some residents’ willingness to talk with a stranger about a matter that, for some, can be very personal.

“People are really excited about the election, so they’re willing to engage you,” she said, alluding to one of her conversations with an undecided voter.

Thompson, the campaign director for the Harvard Dems, also emphasized that canvassing allows students to connect with voters who have much more life experience. Thompson mentioned an elderly couple who both expressed disappointment with the negativity of politics and, therefore, had yet to decide on their votes.

“It’s always a really nice experience. It’s nice to get that real world aspect,” Thompson said.

LOOKING FORWARD

As the school bus rolled out of placid Rochester, students chatted about the day’s highlights, sharing tales of feisty dogs and frustrating conversations and parsing out the differences between New Hampshire and Cambridge.

Two hours later, the evergreens and suburban streets of Rochester far behind them, the campaigners—many still wearing stickers and pins promoting the Democratic party—arrived in Cambridge.

Before the crew disembarked and returned to academics and dorm life, Ki stood up and announced the results of the day’s work: they had knocked on 700 doors and spoken to over 100 New Hampshire residents.

Already looking to the next step, Ki told the canvassers about future trips in early November.

He asked students to participate in at least one more effort. And if they participated in all three?

“I would die of joy,” he said.

—Staff writer Nikita Kansra can be reached at nkansra01@college.harvard.edu.