By Katherine Schneider, for the CVPost
Calling Around
For a few days before last week’s election, I made lots of phone calls to folks in my County Board district to be sure they knew all the different methods of voting open to them in these unusual times.
The (limited) pulse of the city that I took in this way revealed:
1. Most people didn’t answer. Since presumably they were at home (evening and weekend calls), I presume they screen their calls, probably to avoid calls like mine. Good for them! I had fun imagining what they were doing instead of answering my call.
2. Many had done drive-by voting or already had at least requested their absentee ballots. A few grumbled about the difficulties of getting a witness if they were a single, etc. but most just seemed happy to be able to vote.
3. I got into several great conversations about how the coronavirus was going for them and the creative things they were doing for work-arounds in their situations. We are resilient folks.
4. I was too shy to ask them to vote for me, but I think most figured that out when I started the conversation with “I’m Katherine Schneider and I’m running for County Board in your district.” But if they volunteered they would vote for me, I felt good about saying “thanks and remember I work for you if elected, so be in touch.…” It felt good to be a neighbor working for neighbors.
5. I really, really don’t like to make cold calls; hats off to people who do this for a living. Since I can’t see who called, I answer calls usually with four words for sales pitches I’m not interested in: “not interested, thanks anyway.” I guess what goes around comes around – sometimes anyway. Nobody was rude to me! We do live in a nice town!!
Kathie Schneider represents District 22 on the Eau Claire County Board. She ran unopposed in last week’s election.
To read previous instalments of “The Corona Chronicles,” click here.
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