Working for a Win

Tuesday's the big day. Even in Wyoming, Democrats are working for a change, with a win by Gary Trauner over six-term do-nothing Republican Barbara Cubin. It's a statistical dead heat, say the polls. That's close enough to make doubly sure that every Trauner supporter gets out and votes.

This morning I was pamphleteering in Cheyenne for Democrat Mary Throne, running in House District 11. My leafleting partner Lori Millin (running in House District 5) covered one neighborhood and since we finished quickly, got volunteered for another. The 20-or-so volunteers from the Wyoming Public Employee Association, AFL-CIO, Laramie County Democrats, friends, neighbors and family covered every house in the district. It was fun -- and we finished up the morning with a feast at Mary's place.

This evening, I made calls for Call for Change, which is moveon.org's effort to make calls to those voting for Dems in hotly contested districts. I talked to votes in Arizona, Idaho, and northern California. A nice woman in Arizona's U.S. House District 5 said both her and her husband were voting Democratic. She told me to tell moveon.org to work toward a day off for election day. She has to work hard to get to the polls either before or after work. This year, her boss has scheduled a big meeting on the morning of election day and she has to be there. So she and her teacher husband are filling out their ballots beforehand and dropping them off at the polling place. She said if she wears her "I voted" sticker to work, her coworkers will give her a hard time, wondering if she might not be busy enough if she actually has time to vote.

She made a great point. Why don't we have the day off to vote? Why do employers make it so difficult to get to the polls? Conspiracy-oriented folks might say that bigger companies and corporations, run by the Republican elite, would want to suppress the vote of employees any way they can. Employees are dangerous because they could be Democrats or Indies or Greens, so why give them an hour off to vote against THE COMPANY's best interests?

I like the idea of a day off. I'm working at the polls Tuesday. I took a day of vacation leave to work at the polls. Wouldn't it be a great idea if we could get the day off to vote and to volunteer at the polls? That would be democracy in action.