I’m reluctantly leaving Maine today, after volunteering for the past week with the “No on 1” campaign – talking to voters about gay marriage in the most conservative part of the state. We have supporters everywhere, but in this region the challenge is to drive long distances to reach them – and we need more volunteers to reach everybody. Just last night, I drove two hours away to Washington County – where a terrific group of students at the University of Maine in Machias did a phonebank. I’ve spent a lot of time here on the road – exploring much of Downeast Maine to meet supporters, while listening to Christian radio to get clues about the opposition. Our priority for the region now is volunteer recruitment – turning supporters into activists. More volunteers means reaching more supporters and convincing them to vote early, but it also means more conversations with voters that touch hearts and minds. And while canvassing a precinct in Orono this weekend, I got a few.

In my 13 years of volunteering on campaigns, I have never been in a place – with 21 days left to go – where we have identified enough supporters to win the election. And seldom in my memory have I seen the potential of a race like Maine’s Question 1 have such a national impact on a major issue. With turnout expected to be low, we have prioritized “early voting” – asking supporters to vote early, either by requesting an absentee ballot online or doing “in-person” early voting at their local town clerk’s office. And that has meant driving to remote places to get a feel for how voters live before we talk to them.

In Ellsworth on Sunday night, I met nine volunteers at the Hancock County Democratic Headquarters to do “early vote” phonebanking to our supporters. Ellsworth is in part of the state that Mainers call “Downeast,” further away along the Atlantic Ocean from the Mid-Coast region – where the pace of life is slower. The crew of phonebankers knew many of the voters they were calling, so they gave me the call-sheet for Ellsworth (the largest town in the area) to make sure someone from “away” would have a better experience than some of the smaller towns. You can’t call voters in Deer Isle, they said, unless you live there.

As I’ve written before, northern Mainers are a stubborn lot — and it’s been a challenge convincing our supporters to not wait until Election Day to cast their ballots. The folks in Ellsworth explained to me that in these towns, voting is a social activity — old-timers love to gather at the polling place and gossip with neighbors. We had better luck getting them to vote early at their Town Hall in person (rather than an absentee ballot by mail), because it can also serve as a gathering place. But we’ve been trained to walk voters through the online process of requesting an absentee ballot (www.voteearlymaine.com), and by the end of the night I was having Ellsworth voters excitedly tell me “this is so cool” on the phone.

Last night, I drove 85 miles and back to Washington County. Also known as “Sunrise County” (because it’s the easternmost part of the continental United States), the area is very poor and very conservative – with trailer homes and Baptist Churches that adorn Route 1. But the University of Maine has a small campus at Machias with about 1,000 students that make it a pocket of liberalism, and a group of college students get together every week to phone-bank for “No on 1.” In Machias, cell phone reception is spotty at best – nine of us all had to crowd into a dorm room with a strong signal to make calls.



When we’re not calling voters and asking them to vote early, we’re out in the Bangor area working feverishly to recruit volunteers. Organizing the University of Maine at Orono (with its 11,000 students) has been a challenge, and the campaign is stepping up its efforts there – aided by a recent influx of new Volunteer Vacationers. But I was on the lookout for other opportunities in the area over the weekend. Bangor celebrated on Sunday the anniversary of the Brady Gang Shootout – a 1937 FBI ambush that gave the city national headlines. A crowd of 50 people gathered downtown for the festivities, so we made sure to have folks there.

If the “No on 1” campaign can get more volunteers, we can focus on the nuts-and-bolts of what it takes to reach every supportive voter in the state – make sure everyone knows that they need to vote early, and not sit out an election just because it’s in an “off-year.” But it’s also about reaching the sliver of “undecideds” who will determine the outcome. On Saturday, about 12 of us knocked on doors in the Orono – primarily to recruit volunteers in supportive precincts. But by random chance, I got a more conservative part of town.

While more time-consuming than making phone calls, canvassing is far more effective. On an issue like gay marriage where most voters already have strong opinions, I don’t believe someone’s mind will be changed because they get a phone call from someone they don’t know. Phonebanking is effective at identifying supporters (and then getting them to vote), but the real persuasion work comes when you’re at someone’s doorstep.

I had two such experiences on Saturday. One was a mother walking her dog with a six-year old daughter, who was totally confused by the ads on Question 1. She had heard that gay marriage would be “taught” in public schools, but didn’t know what to make of it. I explained that what “Yes on 1” really objects to is schools teaching tolerance, that not all families fit the traditional mold of two straight parents with a biological child. Right now, I said, the children of gay parents get teased at school for being different – and if we vote “no” on Question 1, it will send the message that these families are worthy of respect.

The mother then turned to her six-year-old daughter, and asked “is that true?” – referring to whether the kids of gays and lesbians get teased at school. “Yes,” said the daughter.

The other voter was a woman in her late Fifties, who candidly admitted she was “torn” on the issue. “I’m all about letting gay people live as they want,” she said. “But I’m not comfortable with it being called ‘marriage.’” After a long, convoluted talk about the legal rights, I finally got personal and explained to her my situation. “I struggled for 21 years before coming out,” I said, “because I always wanted to eventually get married and start a family. Marriage equality is so important, because it will help so many other kids understand that they can still grow up and raise a family – and be accepted as normal.”

The woman was moved by my statement, and told me she had two sons – neither of whom are gay, but who she would only want them to be happy if they were. She said she would give the issue more thought, and I know that I’ve at least moved her a bit on this. I won’t be surprised if she votes “no,” and we could not have had that talk on the phone.

These are the kinds of conversations we need more of in Northern Maine between now and November 3rd. That’s why it’s so important to volunteer on this campaign, because we are on the verge of making history – by protecting marriage equality at the ballot box. If 250,000 gay rights activists could protests on the National Mall in Washington this weekend to demand marriage equality (which is half of how many people will be voting in Maine), surely we can get a number of them to come up and walk a few precincts.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Paul Hogarth is helping to run Travel for Change, which helps bring out-of-state volunteers for the “No on 1” campaign to Maine with money and donated airline miles. Now, Drive for Equality is up and running to organize East Coast volunteers who wish to take day (or weekend) trips to Maine by self-organizing into carpools. Check it out …