Broward County (Florida) is home to large numbers of gated communities and subdivisions. Broward is also primarily Democratic and has the potential to turn out over 100,000 votes in the upcoming general election. I was in Hollywood, Florida volunteering for the Obama campaign yesterday, knocking on doors and reminding residents to avoid lines on election-day by voting early. It was overcast as we made our way over to a baseball field where Matt Damon was going to give a speech showing his support for Senator Obama.

Matt Damon – the Hollywood actor best known for his role in Good Will Hunting and the Bourne Identity – attended the event as a regular US citizen, concerned with education, healthcare and the economy for the majority of Americans. In the crowd of 200 most were Latino and African American, and at the end of his speech a huge caravan including Mr. Damon went to the polls to an early voting site at a local library.

With lines up to three hours long, people are getting to the polls early and team Obama is getting the word out and encouraging people to early vote in this election. In my team of four people we tried to get into three subdivisions, two of which were gated communities.

As we approached the first sub-division I turned to one of my colleagues and said, “I don’t like to door knock when it’s overcast.” For much of the afternoon the clouds loomed above us but we never felt any rain. As we knocked on doors, many told us they had already early voted for Obama and others were grateful for the information and pledged to vote in the coming week.

One highlight was helping a family of recent citizens–Jamaican by way of the U.K.- decipher the complicated Florida ballot. As we left their house however, a Pembrook Pines police officer whose door we knocked on ten minutes earlier was eager to get us out of his community. Sadly, he was abusing his power to silence the voice of the opposition. He threatened us with ‘no solicitation’ and practically escorted us off the property.

But we ended the day on a positive note, many people we spoke with who were Democrats and Independents alike, said they were voting early for Obama. And there were several homes where recent citizens said that this was their first voting in a U.S. election and they were voting for Obama. The only glitch to the day was a couple of ten-year old boys who lacked any kind of home training.

The Ten and Under Vote

We approached a door with pro-Obama signs in the front lawn and outside were three boys around 10 years old. One boy was an Obama supporter but his voice was quickly drowned out by the other two 10-year olds who went out of their way to tell us that they hated Obama. We smiled at them and continued our door knocking. As we walked away, one of them shouted, “Obama will get killed because he’s black.”

Now, I am a patient person but his race bating comment got me heated because he was probably only repeating what he heard the adults around him say. I walked back to the boy and I told him that he needed to show more respect to his elders and that to make this kind of statement was disrespectful and that I had not attacked his political candidate and that he shouldn’t attack mine.

The comments of children were the low and high point of yesterday’s door knocking efforts. After the anti-Obama, no home trainin’ 10-year olds we came across a group of 7-10 year olds effusive Obama supporters who when they saw that we were door knocking for Obama began a 15-minute campaign of jumping up and down and yelling in chorus: Obama! Obama! Obama! The most animated of whom repeatedly said to his older brother, Obama rules, stinky-head!”

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