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.