One of the best perc from being the Treasurer of the County Democratic Party

[WCGreen]

here in Cleveland was to getting invited to all sorts of ethnic festivals. And it wasn't just walking around as a by stander. No, I was sucked in a lot of time trying to do ethnic dancing, eating "interesting" food and getting to know people I would never have encountered.

I spent the good part of every summer manning the Party booths at dozens of festivals. We ran a voter drive at every event. The best part of that was I signed up hundreds, if not thousands, of first time voters over the 8 years.

All the petty stuff that goes along with dealing with egos and purposely destructive people falls away and what I remember most is talking through translators and witnessing the joy in the eyes of those who were now ready to vote, many for the first time.

[MineralMan]

1. Huzzah! Good job!

[Democracyinkind]

2. Thank you very much for your efforts!

[hfojvt]

3. well anybody can man those booths

you don't HAVE to be treasurer to do it. I have done lots of it myself, and also at the party headquarters. For this county though it is usually a lot of sitting around. In the 2010 election there was an old fellow who came by most days and we spent a lot of time playing chess. There was not much else to do, although the state party had hired a field organizer to try to retain a legislative seat. So her people also came and went.

There was also the usual housekeeping stuff to do. Emptying the trash, cleaning up after the other volunteers. The toilet stopped up and the building had no plunger. I went home to get my own and discovered I had no plunger at home either. Which I thought was pretty funny. I had lived in that house for nine years and never had need of a plunger. So I bought one for a couple of bucks.

A few people come in to register to vote, but not that many.

No ethnic festivals to go to. Just the County Fair and a few city events and the fourth of July parade in a little town.

Fortunately not that much about egos or purposely destructive people, although one county chair and some others did nominate me to be treasurer and I refused because I thought the current treasurer was doing a capable job. The chair on the other hand, was not doing all that much.

[WCGreen]

5. The truth...

The party was so ensconced in do-nothing mode when I was asked to be the treasurer that I took it upon myself to get the party out and in front of as many people as I could.

You have to have a booth to begin with in and then find a couple dozen people in order to get just anyone to man those booths.

Plus we scheduled candidates to be at the booth to meet and greet the people walking by the booth.

The county fair was a big deal.

Sorry to say that when I fell ill in the early '00 and had to step away from the Party, the booth at the County Fair was dropped.

[hfojvt]

6. well Cuyahoga county is ginormous

so you'd think they would have a huge county party.

My own county in 70,000 people, with 10-11,000 Democratic voters, but our party struggles to get 20 at a meeting or event. This has been true for my entire 9 years of involvement. We get a Congressional candidate here and cannot even get a crowd of 100 to listen to them.

We have booths at the County Fair, but not very many people visit them. The same was true when I went to Manhattan (Kansas) as a candidate. I talked to maybe two voters in that county of 60,000 people. One of the guys I met working at the booth had already voted even though the actual primary was still three weeks away.

More important is the fair parade, I handed out hundreds of cards in that (which may not have done much good, but at least you kind of are contacting voters).

[CaliforniaPeggy]

4. K&R for your colorful story!

[kentuck]

7. I guess that for a person that has never voted...?

They must feel empowered in some way knowing that their vote counts the same as anybody else in America...?