
This is from the same co-worker who wrote in Dispatch #1. Her words are all the more reason to go vote today!It's now a night before election day. It's been a VERY LONG WEEK. But this past weekend, the Campaign was blessed with 100 to 125 ACLU volunteers from around the country. It was awesome. On Saturday alone, we were able to knock on over 9500 homes around Sioux Falls. It was an incredible achievement.There were some great moments during our second attempt in canvassing. The first door I knocked on, a young black man answered the door. I told him about Referred Law 6 and how it would be too extreme (this is the Campaign's message, not mine!) and I would like him to vote No on RL 6. He agreed with me, but he wasn't registered. I asked whether he had access to the internet and gave him the site for the Secretary of State. It seems in SD you can register until the very last minute, so we gained another voter! Several doors down, I was greeted by an elderly white woman in her 80s. I've told her who I was and why I was there. She told me that she is definitely voting no on Referred Law 6. And added "why can't the legislators just leave Roe alone? I've seen so many women my age suffer prior to Roe. These legislators should be voted out of office." I found the elderly to be more supportive of our position than the younger folks. Even though the list was supposed to be voters who are more inclined to vote against the ban, we faced several anti-choice folks on our route. I was told by one man to get off his property and another woman just closed her car door in my face. Of the 96 homes I visited that afternoon, about 10 homes were pro-choice. And while the pro-choice people that I met rejuvenated me, it was the thought of the anti-choice homes that lingered at the end of the night.On Sunday morning, volunteers gathered at 41st and Louise, a busy intersection, where all 100 volunteers lined the streets (on both sides). With signs like "honk for No on Referred Law 6" or "too extreme, defeat abortion ban", we greeted church goers who were attending their Sunday morning mass at a local Catholic Church/ Catholic high school. This same high school has a "grave yard for the unborn", pink and blue crosses representing "unborn children lost to abortion." The responses from the drivers were positive. This was the most fun I had to date. I returned to Campaign office that night and joined another round of phone banking. After calling 50 homes, I called it an evening.Argus Leader, South Dakota's main paper, is printing a lot of ads on Referred Law 6. I'm going to bring a copy back to NY so you can see it. The Campaign is cautiously enthusiastic, but they are not taking any chances. Today, along with three other volunteers (one from RCRC, 2 from a college in Iowa), I drove 1 hour south to Vermillion. From what I heard from the organizers, Vermillion is more progressive than Sioux Falls. We did some visibility at University of South Dakota, phone banking and canvassing. I knocked on 106 homes today; there were more home with our lawn signs up in Vermillion than the two canvassing I did in Sioux Falls.The Campaign is doing a last push for GOTV on Election Day. There will be visibility event, phone banking and canvassing. The evening is going to end with an Election Night party at a local Sheraton, where the Democratic Candidate for Governor, Jack Billion, is also supposed to have a party. That should be fun. But really, I just can't wait until Wednesday morning when this is all over and I'm on the way back to NYC.