Profile of a Precinct

This is my 5th year as chair of 'lucky' Precinct 07-11 in North Raleigh. In our first meeting in 2004, we could barely find the minimum 5 people to officially organize. Most of us felt isolated in what we perceived was a vast, suburban Republican sea. People were afraid to talk politics. "You wouldn't by any chance be a Democrat?", whispered one neighbor after a stimulating discussion about affordable housing and a kvetch session on chain restaurants.

But 2004 was a motivating year. When we managed to get 60 Kerry-Edwards signs posted in yards all over our precinct, people realized they were not alone and began to come out of their Democratic 'closet'.

After 2 years we had a well oiled machine with 25 active volunteers and an e-mail list of over 100 households. One volunteer designed a logo for us (see above) which went on coffee mugs and cups which we sold and included in welcome packets for new Democrats in the neighborhood. Another published a precinct newsletter.

We organized an annual Meet-the-Candidates event each year. Every year I've been frantic that no one will show up, but they have all been well attended. One year we held an ice cream social. It rained but we tattooed our logo on our arms and giggled a lot. There was no scarcity of food at our events and our teams of poll greeters chat and bond on election day.

Then at the end of last year, it mostly fell apart. The vice-chair who was a committed and energetic partner emigrated to Canada with his family (in part, to experience a more sane political environment in contrast to Bush's America). A number of other active volunteers moved.

And as I contacted the once motivated Democrats, I was confronted with the whole range of human sorrows and afflictions: cancer and reoccurences of cancer, MS, hip replacements, mental illness, alzsheimers, people suffering with constant pain, surgeries and more surgeries and mysterious illnesses that some chose to keep private. Some couples became full time care-givers to relatives with debilitating illnesses. Others devoted all their spare time to their children who were struggling in school or had emotional difficultues. Still others had ever more demanding jobs, traveled extensively, and were clearly stressed with long hours and unreasonable deadlines. Most everyone was stretched for time, After one set of calls, I almost cried at the variety and burdens of human misery. And I am aware that my neighbors comprise a solid, middle class demographic. How this misery index would be magnified in poor and largely minority communities, I can scarcely imagine.

But this historic election has raised the political pulse.

We're building up again --slowly. At our planning meeting in April, only 4 people showed up, but tonight we're trying again and have over 20 RSVPs. The Obama field organizer for our area will be joining us along with a young Obama Fellow I was delighted to learn lives in our precinct.

Some stats about precinct 07-11:
1. With only 1206 registered voters, we are the 11th smallest precinct in the county (198 precincts in total).
2. The party affiliation breaks down like this: Dems: 502, Reps: 423, Unaffiliated: 281. Most Dems were blown away to learn we were actually in the majority here. But this is the classic North Carolina model precinct. In 2004, our democratic Governor Mike Easley won handily here, but so did Bush.
3. We are relatively active voters. In the recent run-off election for Labor Commissioner, we had a voter turn-out of 5.9% which actually was 16th best in the county.

I'm eager to see how it all goes tonight. I'll be reporting.

And watch for the best brownie recipe ever -- a thank-you gift from a volunteer to our poll greeters on primary day.