Hundreds of voters in Connecticut’s Third U.S. Congressional District got a call and a question on Sunday afternoon: Will you be voting in November’s midterm elections?
The ten callers were volunteers for Organizing for America (OFA), a grassroots project sponsored by the Democratic National Committee. They assembled at Blue State Coffee on Wall Street to phone local Democrats who had voted for the first time in the 2008 presidential election.
“Nationally, about 15 million voters drop off between presidential and midterm elections,” noted Paul Wessel, the New Haven-based OFA volunteer who oversaw Sunday’s event. The callers’ goal, he said, was to stem that drop-off — at least around New Haven.
Some first-time voters inspired by Barack Obama’s historic campaign have been less enthusiastic about the less-glamorous midterm elections.
The other volunteers at Blue State ranged from the politically experienced — like Gerry Garcia (D), a candidate for Connecticut secretary of the state — to the novices like Cheshire resident Alanna Rosenblatt, who just finished her freshman year at Syracuse University and who was herself a first-time voter in 2008.
Then there were those like Ruthann Brazdova (at left in photo, alongside Alex Marek and Michael Robin), who have helped out here and there since the presidential election.
“In 2008, I donated to the Democratic campaigns every month,” Brazdova recalled. “Everything’s a little more expensive now, and I can’t donate anymore, but I can still talk!” she said, picking up her cellphone and dialing the next number on her list of Hamden voters.
Wessel had a similar, humbly-optimistic view of his efforts.
“I see videos of oil gushing into the Gulf, and I can’t do much about that,” he said. “But at least I can do this.”