Barking dogs, slushy snowbanks, and hidden house numbers.
It's all in a day's work for canvassers trying to get out the vote.
On Sunday, these political foot soldiers took on such challenges in a final push before tomorrow's (today's) Primary.
And in Manchester, one group went looking for a growing population of potential voters....unmarried, unregistered women.
NHPR Correspondent Ellen Grimm reports.
Sarah Chaisson Warner has been working out of a rented office in Manchester since October.
She’s hired about eighty canvassers to reach out to the city's sixty-five hundred unmarried women who are also unregistered to vote.
Chaisson Warner works for the New Hampshire Citizens Alliance.
On Sunday, Chaisson Warner talked with a few organizers in her office as canvassers began arriving for the morning shift.
SARAH: And then in the afternoon w'ere looking at Wards 10, 11 and if we can get to it Ward 6. And so by the time we have finished today we will have done a second touch on all of them …..and really making sure that those who have said yes have the transportation, have childcare and we have all of that set up here to just eliminate barriers and making voter particpation absolutely happen.
(chaissonwarnercut1)
Hand-written charts on the wall tracked the group's progress.
Two weeks ago, they reached five hundred thirty five doors, contacted six hundred thirty five women in seventy-nine point four hours.
And they convinced ninety women to vote.
Canvasser Abbi Berg, 12, from Rhode Island. was canvassing with her mother.
She described meeting a woman who had stopped voting after she'd struggled with the voting machines.
Berg: We told her that she could call someone for help with that and that they shouldn't have been sort of rude about just making her use the machine when she didn't know how. So, yeah, she's going to vote. (bergcut1)
According to statistics compiled by the national organization, Women's Voices. Women Vote, 20 million unmarried women did not vote in the 2004 elections.
Jeff Blum, with US Action Education Fund, had come from Maryland to help canvass.
Blum: Of the demographic groups in the electorate, this is the group that participates the least, relative to their total size. It is also a group that because of the changing nature of American society it is growing. (blumcut1)
Chaisson Warner says the national groups have targetted New Hampshire for several reasons.
But one of the most important is that it’s one of only a handful of states that allows same-day registration.
Chaisson Warner: The women that we are reaching out to have been saying this is the exactly the kind of information that I need, this is exactly what I was looking for. We're also dispelling myths. A lot of people don't know that you can register on the same day as you vote." (chaissonwarnercut2)
Franklin Pierce College student,Ashley Pike, from Maine has spent her winter break living with a friend in Manchester, so she can work on canvassing.
One of her first encounters was with a woman who explained her situation through an interpreter.
Pike: She had never voted before, and she didn't speak good English, and she didn't want to burden the people, and we explained to her that we have interpreters and we can also provide her with car rides and somebody can go into the booth and help her out, and she was very interested. She said she had always wanted to vote, this was just her obstacle. So we gave her the information. She actually called the hotline, and she set up a ride and stuff, so she'll be voting when it's time. (pikecut1)
Jennifer Risley of Keene and Roman Sypko of Hancock worked in some frigid weather last week.
They were grateful for the milder temperatures on Sunday, though they had to look out for melting snow sliding from rooftops and dripping icycles.
Sypko and Risley: Hi, Amelia? Sorry to bother you again. We're with NH Citizens alliance and we talked to you probably yesterday. We're just checking in to see if you need childcare or a ride to the polls. No? Okay, you're all set." (sypkorisleycut4)
It turned out Amelia Clark had moved to Manchester from New York state in recent years and had never registered.
She was also married -- an occasional lapse in the list.
And she was raring to vote.
Clark: This is our generation, this will be our grandkids' generation. This will be the generation to come, and it's very very important to us to get this economy. I am a business owner so I feel very strongly that this needs to be corrected, and our government, the White House, everything just needs to go forth. (clarkcut1)
Canvasser Roman Sypko himself immigrated to the US from Poland when he was a boy.
So some of the most uplifting moments came when meeting other immigrants.
Sypko: The immigrants we have come across are thrilled to be here. They're just waiting for their citizenship. They're excited, and they were very friendly in opening their doors and welcoming us and talking about what they're doing. And they did mention, I have just applied, I'm not a citizen yet but when I do become a citizen I certainly will vote, because they probably lacked that freedom in their own countries. (sypkocut1)
After several hours, Sypko and Risley had trudged through a lot of melting snow and had made contact with three or four people.
They were ready for lunch.
After that, they'd get back to work in the dwindling hours before the actual voting begins.
For NHPR news in Manchester, this is Ellen Grimm
