Something afoul is afoot in Mooresville North Carolina, and we're

not talking stinky feet. It is Obama campaign signs at the Mooresville

Public Library which is also an early voting site for the election.

Early voting opened at 10:00 A.M. yesterday and when they started

the Obama signs had been taken down by someone. Later that day they

were replaced and by morning today they were missing again.

I went in to complain that they weren't doing enough to protect the

signs from theft and they told me, "go tell the Obama people in the

parking lot." So I went out there and found campaign staffers talking

to voters on the way in, handing out flyers and Obama stickers.

They asked if I was there to volunteer and I said, "Sure I'd love

to." So I spent till the polls closed at 6:00 P.M. talking to voters as

they went to the polls. Why was it so important to talk to people? Well

it seems that back when Reagan was running a candidate for governor

decided to seperate the ballot into 2 sections. He was afraid that if

someone voted "straight party" that he'd lose. So ever since then the

ballot has been divided in such a way that the presidental candidates

are one vote to mark, and "straight party" covers all other partisian

candidates. Many people go in, and think "straight party" is all they

have to mark and that covers their presidental vote as

well........WRONG!!

So without expressing an opinion one way or the other, in other

words, no trying to convince someone to vote Obama, (even though I had

two stickers on my shirt) we were pointing out to everyone, not just

Democrats but any republicans who would listen, that they had to make

sure they "ticked" both the candidate and straight party if they wanted

to or mix and match the rest, but to just make sure they didn't goof

their ballot.

99% of the people who refused to listen to what we had to say were

obviously Republicans who thought we were there to try to convert them

to our cause. We only had one person who was asked to vote for Obama

turn around and tell us why he refuses to. He said Obama is against the

1st and 2nd ammendment. With people like that, there's no trying to

convince them otherwise, so you just let them go on their delusional

way and vote how they want to.

The highlight of the day was when I and one of the other campaign

workers were approached by a woman who was probably in her 50's who had

her 87 yr old mother with her. They had both just voted and the

daughter had tears in her eyes. She told us, (as best as I can remember

the exact wording) "I have to tell you something. I actually did

something today I never in my lifetime figured I'd ever do, and that's

to vote for a black man. I have wrestled with the decision for weeks,

agonized over it, and in the end, had to vote my what my heart told me,

which is that black or not, Obama will be the best president for the

country." Naturally we all told her we felt she made the right move and

regardless of how she felt about blacks, Obama is a man of the people,

and that means ALL people, of all colors. She thanked us for all our

kindness and then her and mom left.

I tried to keep a running total of the number of people who would

have gotten their ballot marked wrong had I not talked to them, and at

last count I was at 58 who did not know about the straight ticket and

presidential votes being seperate. Those who didn't want to listen, we

figure maybe half of them will mess up, which means that even if

they're not voting Democrat, at least their votes won't count in the

Republican column.

Of the early voting, the library recorded 1174 ballots cast

yesterday and 995 today, and I am now on the schedule to help out for

the rest of the week. I wanted so much to be able too contribute

SOMETHING to this campaign, whether it be donations or assisting

somewhere, and now I have connections to the main staff for Mooresville

and they are asking me to be a full time volunteer.