Wanderers Provided Free Transportation on Election Day

Wanderer Bin Reuter retooled the technovan and provided transportation support on election day. The following is his report:

In the weeks leading up to the election, I was busy ringing doorbells, calling people by phone, and working on getting Democrats to the polls for a variety of organizations including MoveOn, the Sierra Club and others. But as the elections neared, it became apparent that our politically active neighborhood did not need my help and I needed to come up with a plan of my own.

While "canvassing" in Germantown for the Sierra Club (which targeted all doors rather than working off a list of infrequent voters like MoveOn did), it became apparent that there was a lot of education that needed to be done. Many new voters thought they had voted already by declaring their party affiliation upon registering to vote. Others did not realize that their votes counted much beyond the boundaries of Philly; they were unaware that their vote here was needed to offset a conservative vote somewhere between here and Pittsburgh.

Canvassing Germantown was a trip. Together with my wife, we rang every bell and talked to every person on the street that would listen. We forged our way into the YMCA and other apartment buildings in the area and did quite well. Many people assumed we had to be Republicans by virtue of being white in this virtually all black and very poor part of Philadelphia. We'd say something like "Are you planning to vote in the upcoming election?" and the replies would be an angry response like "Hell yeah, I'm gonna vote!" If it seemed they were motivated to vote, we usually left them to assume we were Republicans, figuring we were better off leaving them angry yet motivated. In all other cases, we'd stick around and explain to them the importance of voting this time around and making sure they called all their relatives and neighbors to make sure they too would vote.

While working Germantown, we noticed that there were always tons of people waiting for various modes of transportation all along Chelten and Germantown Avenues. That's when it hit me that I could make a difference trying to make it easier for these commuters to make it to the polls.

In the days leading up to the elections, I stapled dozens and dozens of posters (inside ziploc bags to make sure they wouldn't fade in case it rained) that included my cell phone number and a map containing that area's polling place. The poster offered a free ride to or from voting.

On the day before the election, my phone started ringing. Not off the hook but at least a dozen or so anyway. Most calls were from people that needed help getting their parent/s to the polls. But many others had to do with questions about where people needed to go, etc. On the eve before the election, I made up large banners {offering free rides} and plastered the sides of the Technovan flanked by the W flags and Kerry/Edwards decals.

On the day of the election, it seemed that my intuition about Mount Airy was correct. We accounted for virtually all of the voters on the MoveOn lists (by crossing them off our lists after they voted) and virtually all of them made it to the polls on their own account. So, I then went looking for people by going to the various apartment buildings (convalescent center, nursing homes, apt buildings, etc.) in our greater area and by going to the bus stations at Germantown Ave and along Chelton Ave. While using the Technovan's PA system, I loudly reminded people to get out to vote and to flag me down if they needed a ride.

Throughout the day, I got nothing but positive vibes. In the vacuum of the Technovan, it seemed we were not only going to beat Bush but we were going to be winning big. Even though I am from a long line of doomsayers and pessimists, Bin Reuter was feeling outright positive. I should have known something was amiss!

Altogether, I probably drove 20-some-odd people to their respective polling places plus I transported several batches of volunteers from the various PACs as they shifted their resources during the day. My rides included some very old folks, a Cereberal Palsy patient, and some extremely obese people that would have had a tough time walking anywhere. Whenever people didn't know where to go to vote, I would call a friend of mine who I had left with a Web URL (on hallwatch.org) to look it up for me. As a result, I got to visit some polling places deep inside Germantown neighborhoods that I would have been hesitant to enter on less euphoric days.

My day ended around 9 o'clock after picking up friends and their belongings from other polling places.

In retrospect, I did receive some signs that this election wasn't in the bag. I gave a 98-old lady a ride, who was remarkably mobile and astute, but who cringed when I mentioned Clinton and who complained of declining morality. Little did I know that Rove's master plan to take the Democratic stronghold and turn it against them had been so effective even if it did defy all common sense. But it wasn't until the news came that the exit polls had been inaccurate that I realized we were done.

To this day, this election continues to baffle me. How can we live in a country with so many ignorant and selfish people? How could the church lower itself and push the GOP for purely selfish reasons? How does America tolerate an administration that is so dishonest and which should have been impeached so many times over already?

As of today, I don't have any answers and I yet have to find a silver lining in any of this. And to add insult to injury, I find out this morning that 1 out of 3 GOP voters actually believed (at the time they voted) that we found those elusive WMD's! As Bushie likes to say: Mission Accomplished.

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