University of Iowa

DSC02885, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Thursday, October 16th, 2008

Young voters registered yesterday – 14,549
Miles traveled today – 214

7:46 pm – Ames, Iowa

Registering voters is essentially street promoting a product. The big differences being that a) you are not wearing a sandwich board, a foam rubber costume, or some other absurd outfit and b) your ‘product’ is voter registration forms, which is really more of a public service. Both street promos and voter registration involve a megaphone though.

“HAVE YOU VOTED YET?!” is our clarion call and it is usually followed by surprised jumps, rapidly turning heads, and even the occasional startled squawks. Nobody expects a megaphone.

Ebenezer, our tour manager, is the designated megaphoner. He is an excellent person-startler. The downside of a megaphone is that once you use it, it’s hard to stop. So you get conversations like these.

“HEY THERE!”

“Oh! Hi...”

“WHO ARE YOU TALKING TO?!”

“Uh... it’s my mom on the phone.”

“CAN SHE HEAR ME!!!!!?”

“Probably. Mom, can you hear him?... Yes, he’s right next to me... I don’t know why... She says your very loud.”

“HAVE THE TWO OF YOU VOTED YET?! THERE IS AN EARLY VOTING LOCATION RIGHT BEHIND YOU!!!”

“I did. Yeah.”

“GREAT!! HEY EVERYONE SHE VOTED!!!”

At this point passersby quietly nod in approval. They will not actively cheer because that might make Ebenezer start talking to them.

“NICE WEATHER, HUH?” The megaphone operator continues.

“Yeah, I guess... You know that I’m right next to you right?”

“YES!! WHY?!”

“Just, you know, checking... um, I have to talk to my mom.”

“OH, DON’T LET ME STOP YOU!”

“Alright. Bye then.”

“IT WAS NICE TALKING TO YOU!!!”

The whole scene leaves you with the impression are witnessing a conversation between a human being and a space creature with an amplified mouth organ. The creature is obviously trying to understand how we humans communicate, though not altogether successfully. This is OK since Ebenezer’s name is Ebenezer, which means he may in fact be a martian.

I was initially put on megaphone duty, but was told that I sound deeply creepy. While I object to the decision, it is possible that a twenty something male yelling “ARE YOU EIGHTEEN?!” at college women could give the wrong impression.

Today was, by the way, spent at Iowa State University, which is distinguished by highly active students (we witnessed over 500 vote early), a jaw-droppingly beautiful campus, and Memorial Union hall whose custodial staff abbreviate ‘custodial’ ‘CUS’ and ‘Memorial Union’ ‘MU,’ which means that all cleaning supplies are marked with the delightful Acronym ‘MUCUS.’

We’ll spend the night in Des Moines this evening then get out on the street here tomorrow. There are only nineteen days left to promote our product.

-- Nick Brown