October 29 - Seven days to go. It seems like there has been only bad news about the McCain/Palin campaign in recent days so we are mystified by reports that the poll results indicate a tightening race. All we can do is soldier on. The intensity is increasing. I walked precincts for eight hours, then entered data from the canvassing and phone banks. The phone bankers and canvassers make notes on what they learn. In particular, there is a scale from one to five on whether the voter favors Obama or McCain. The notes have to be entered into computers. Sometimes the notes are surprising. One reported that the voter was "leaning" toward Obama and that the voter had already mailed the ballot. Everybody has the "thousand-yard stare" from working fifteen or more hours day after day. Fatigue has made everybody less efficient. I spent four hours on some computer tasks that should have taken an hour and a half because I kept making mistakes and having to start over. I left at midnight while others were still working. We are so ready for this election to be over!

October 28 - Eight days to go. More volunteers are arriving. New ones from California and Texas. A few experiences from the streets. Sometimes there will be a Ziploc bag of water tacked to the wall of a trailer next to the doorway. If you can't afford a screen door, but you need to leave the door open for ventilation, you tack up the baggie next to the door because light refracted through the water prevents flies from passing through the doorway. People swear it works! At home, somebody might stop me to ask if I'm looking for a lost dog. Yesterday somebody stopped me to ask if I was looking for a lost goat. At one point, I was up a long driveway a mile from the nearest paved road. The voter I was visiting was knocked out that I had taken that much trouble to try to get his vote. Felt good. Roadrunners are fairly common. They look insane. Many houses have shrines by the doorway.

October 24 - Twelve days to go. More canvassing. We have to prepare for all the work we would do over the weekend with the rally thrown in. We have to find additional volunteers to cover the office while the regular staff is in Albuquerque and do all the preparation for effective canvassing. I left the office at 1:15 AM; others were still at work.

October 25 - Eleven days to go. Canvassed in the morning. We left for UNM, about 20 miles away, about 2:00. The rally was at an area of soccer fields that I estimate cover about six city blocks. Although the gates were scheduled to open at 7:00, the line was already blocks long by the time we arrived. The field was eventually absolutely jammed. The authorities estimated the crowd at 45,000. By contrast, John McCain held an event at noon that drew an estimated 1600. We, of course, were there to work, not to enjoy the show. My group was assigned to various press tasks, for example, checking off credentials as they arrived. Another important function was the travelling press tent. The travelling press that accompanies the candidate gets food and beer and a big tent with a view of the stage, evidently paid for by the major news organizations for their reporters and photographers. The local and small-time press gets tables in the open with no refreshments. Naturally, the local press wants to wriggle into the travelling press tent to swill beer and push resumes. Two volunteers were assigned to make sure the riff-raff don't get into the travelling press tent. There are platforms for the photographers so that they will have a good view. Naturally, everybody wants to get onto the platforms to share the view. I was assigned to be bouncer: if you don't have a press credential and a camera, you don't go up the stairs. The platforms (called risers) are jealously subdivided into lots for each news organization with blue masking tape. ABC's tripod leg better not encroach onto NBC's lot. The Secret Service was present but not intrusive. The Democratic senator presided. A Native American chaplain gave the invocation in his language. Several candidates and the governor spoke. George Lopez, a TV star, did an act. ("I might be Secretary of State. I can see Mexico from my front porch!") Finally the candidate. Barack spoke for about 45 minutes. It was mostly a recitation of his policies. The end was stirring, although I must admit I have forgotten just what he said.

Afterwards, my young colleagues proposed going out for food. Fortunately, once we got to the crowded and noisy restaurant, I was able to find another exhausted person to give me a ride back to Los Lunas.

October 26 - Ten days to go. Two shifts of canvassing. I am commonly walking in remote rural areas where there isn't a restroom, let alone any place for lunch. Weldon makes lunch for me! Two sandwiches, hardboiled eggs, veggies and fruit, and chips. I wonder if I can get him to adopt me? One of the other volunteers encountered a furious McCain supporter. The McCain supporter raged that someone had stolen his McCain lawn sign; naturally, this volunteer was the object of his rage. The McCain campaign parked its bus in front of our office that afternoon. The volunteer visited the bus to pick up a McCain campaign sign and drove it out to the McCain supporter. Who knows what good might be harvested from that seed? Albuquerque, by the way, had a domestic violence fundraiser yesterday called "Walk a Mile In Her Shoes". Men walk a mile in high-heeled shoes to raise money from sponsors.

October 27 - Nine days to go. More canvassing. I visited one address to talk to three women residents. An older guy was fiddling out in front. He explained that all of the women were out. The wife's nephew killed his uncle last night so the women were dealing with all the consequences. I felt I was a journeyman canvasser because I went on to ask how the women would vote. A really hard-boiled canvasser would have urged the guy to be sure the women vote early. I endured my first dog-bite - no harm done. The dog was just showing his contempt for me.

I wrote a letter to editor of the local newspaper to respond to an ad that implicitly demanded Catholics to vote against Obama. I hope to get a local volunteer to submit the letter.

October 23 - Thirteen days to go. I spend the day canvassing. The recommended procedure is to go in pairs for various safety reasons, but I enjoy going by myself. No issues of coordination and I get to choose when the bathroom stops occur. The precincts were housing developments with paved streets, house numbers, and closely-spaced houses, so the work goes fast. There is a change: for the first time, undecided voters are asking me to have a serious discussion about which candidate to support. Does this mean the voters have decided to focus on the election? A voter called the office to request a visit from someone to discuss issues in more depth. The voter happens to live a few doors from Ellie and Weldon, so I deputized Weldon to make a visit.

I hoping to find time for the 2.5-pound burrito challenge.

More dialling for volunteers in the evening. Some success. I learned from one of the people I called (I'm always out of the loop) that Barack will make an appearance in Albuquerque on Saturday. I hope to be able to attend. The appearance means that we have to accelerate our other activities. I left the office at 12:45 AM; at least four people were still there when I left.

October 21 - Fifteen days to go. More canvassing all day. There was sign on one door: "Please be patient. It will take me several minutes to answer the door." I rang the bell. After about five minutes, it dawned on me that the occupant wasn't going to answer the door. The sign is just there to lure me into wasting my time! In the evening, more phone banking. Done about 10:30.

I am staying in Ellie and Weldon's spare bedroom. Weldon is a retired firefighter. Since retiring, he's been a cook and a professional blackjack player, among other things. Ellie was for many years the personal assistant to Joe Foss, WWII Medal of Honor winner, governor of South Dakota and first commissioner of the American Football League. Ellie and Weldon spent thirteen years living in an RV, touring the country and working in national parks, campgrounds and amusement parks.

October 22 - Fourteen days to go. Canvassing all day in a rural area. While walking down a rural road, I heard a car coming up behind me, so I glanced back. After I turned forward again, I had one of those "There's something wrong with this picture!" moments. Looking back again, I saw a big American sedan coming at about 30 mph. A guy is lying across the hood against the windshield with his head hanging over the side, staring into the wheelwell. About a quarter-mile past me, the car stopped, the guy dismounted and got into the car and the car drove off. Diagnosing a noise in the wheelwell, I guess.

The campaign invites people at rallies and elsewhere to put their names on a list if they are interested in volunteering to help. Seemingly, many people do sign up in moments of enthusiasm. By the time I called them last night, the enthusiasm had cooled a little. Everybody still wanted to help, as long as helping doesn't require any actual time or effort. I managed to land a few volunteers. A few won't give any time but will deliver food to feed the volunteers. I wonder where the data comes from. I explained to one woman that I was calling because her husband's name was on my list of potential volunteers. She replied that her husband had been dead for six years. She added helpfully, "He was a Democrat, though."

We compile lists of addresses for the canvassing. The addresses have to be geographically compact, to the extent possible so that the canvasser can walk the area. We usually compile a list of 50 addresses per packet. At about 10:30 last night, the decision came down to increase the packet size for today to 60 addresses. We had to open up all the packets and reshuffle the addresses. Done about 12:15 AM.

I am volunteering for the Obama campaign from an office in Los Lunas, New Mexico. Los Lunas is about 20 miles south of Albuquerque. It's an old farming town (the Luna family claim dates to 1716), maybe about the size of Castro Valley. It's in a wide flat valley with mountains in the distance. I hope to have time to share my experiences.

October 18 - Eighteen days to go. I arrived last night after driving eight hours from Tucson. I came into the office at 9:00 to find everyone bustling for a rally. We loaded up my truck and other vehicles with food and equipment and drove over to the site to set up. We set up tables and a couple hundred chairs. We hung banners and set up grills. My role was not to sit around and eat hamburgers while waiting for the governor to show up. I was sent out to canvass with another person. To canvass is to go out on the street with a list of likely voters' addresses and knock on their doors to talk to them about voting for your candidate. The precinct we were working was in Belen, a little south of Los Lunas. A lot of the streets are unpaved. The houses are widely spaced, often set well back from the street, so there's a lot of dusty walking. A great many of the houses have serious dogs in the yard. I tried to convince the dogs I wasn't worried (one woman yelled at me because the only reason her dog didn't eat me was that the dog was inside the house).

We finished our precinct just in time to get back for the finale of the rally. Governor Richardson and the other candidates spoke to an enthusiastic crowd. The Congressional candidate is legendary because of the benefits of working for his company. If any of the 250 or so employees, or the employee's spouse or children, want to attend college, they can drop by the company office to report the amount of the tuition and books. The office cuts a check to the school!

After the rally, we took down all the furniture, schlepped it back to the rental place, and cleaned everything up. The leftover food will go to the women's shelter. Then the telephoning begins. First all the people who previously committed to volunteer tomorrow get calls to remind them to show up. Then we work the phone banks until 9:00 to identify Obama voters and to persuade the undecided. Then we have to do data entry to file away the canvassing and phone bank data. We get done about 10:30.

October 19 - Seventeen days to go. More canvassing. I'm out on the street by 10:00. One man accused me of being from ACORN. When I tried to explain the facts about ACORN, he sneered "You've got all the answers!" Most people, even if they won't support Obama, are pretty open to conversation. I met a couple of committed McCain supporters who were waiting for their homing pigeons to finish a race from Monticello, Utah. I make no effort to persuade McCain voters, just "Thank you" and move on to the next address. Six hours later, back at the office, I grab two slices of cold pizza and a stale cookie before starting the telephone work. First, we call the people who attended the rally to see if we can cajole them into volunteering on Election Day. Then more voter calls and data entry. Out the door about 10:00.

October 20 - Sixteen days to go. In the office at 9:00. I spend a couple of hours training on specialized software. Then it's time to canvass. I meet a volunteer in Belen, an old railroad hub. Sidewalks - what a treat! Intermittent thunderstorms produce short cloudbursts and beautiful skies. Fortunately, we are in the truck at the rainiest times. One man was drying chiles in front of his trailer - I hope he got them under cover. Lots of people living in trailers and other pretty informal housing. Many have the front gates chained shut. Some even have the driveway chained shut. Do these people have friends? How does anyone ever come over for a visit? Back to the office at 6:00. More phone-banking. There are union members helping tonight. Since the supply of numbers is inexhaustible, having the additional people doesn't shorten the work, just makes the atmosphere louder. More data entry. There's a snafu on which pages of data have been input and which hasn't. Everybody's tired and not ready for this confusion. I leave at 11:15.