My 15 Votes: 34 + 63 (- 5) = Victory?

An addendum to Emily‘s field reporting on all of the EchoDitto team members out there helping to turn our nation blue on Tuesday: I’m just back from canvassing in the Seventh District of swing state Pennsylvania.
Many “experts” believe the Keystone State–and thus, perhaps, the election–will be won or lost in suburban Philly, and so it was that I found myself spending my last weekend before the election trying to get my 15 votes. The Seventh is one of many hot races in the area: Paul Scoles, the Democratic congressional candidate, is a great Dean-style candidate and deserves to win against the extreme right-wingnut incumbent Curt Weldon.
Canvassing, as always, was educational in many respects. I went in a mixed group of students from PA and DC as well as some community members–all told about 30 people. We met early for donuts and caravanned to the union hall in Chichester, where we ended up stuck in the local Halloween parade for nearly an hour. The Kerry/Edwards staging area was alive with activity, people buzzing all around and staff hurriedly handing out walk lists to the steady stream of volunteers coming in off the street. We were assigned walk lists in two communities, and by the time we were leaving the main staging area at about 11:30 the Kerry/Edwards office had distributed all of its walk lists for the day.
Most of the houses we visited there was little doubt about their support. Pulling into my assigned community of Haverford, we passed a Kerry/Edwards visibility, and at the houses we visited most people had lawn signs up (including a number of Main Line Moms for Kerry signs) and many had bumper stickers on their cars. At one target house (with sign and bumper sticker) a harried mom answered the door: “Do you really need to ask?” Her young son quickly came to the door, shouting “Vote Kerry!” She apologized, saying, “He’s really a big supporter.” Too bad he looked about 10 years too young to vote. I gave him two stickers anyway.
I were hardly alone on the campaign trail though yesterday. Residents reported that MoveOn.org canvassers moved through the same neighborhood in the morning before we ever arrived on the scene, and Governor Ed Rendell’s Kerry/Edwards bus tour rolled through Haverford while we worked nearby. I didn’t manage to sign up a single volunteer all day because most people were already volunteering in some way. I met several poll watchers, Election Day GOTVers, local Party officials. When I went back to the union hall at 7 p.m. to turn in the completed walk lists, the whole room had been converted into busy phone banks. Anyway there was a lot of passion and energy out there.
The low point of the day came when we visited a nursing home that contained five of our target voters for the day. We spoke with the nursing supervisor who agreed to allow us to speak with the residents on our list, but when we started to go over the list we were met with pauses at each name. “Um, no, he passed away.” “Nope, she must’ve died two years ago.” Turned out none of our five targeted voters was still alive. Hmm.
All told, I talked with 34 people yesterday–all knew where their polling place was and planned on voting for Kerry/Edwards–and had 63 “no answers” (including the five at the nursing home).
Perhaps the most exciting thing for me: We passed a lot of Kerry/Edwards lawn signs at houses that weren’t on our list as being strong supporters. Perhaps there’s a silent majority out there just waiting for Tuesday to roll around?