Wyurm
08-16-2007, 08:40 PM
I'm not as good as some others here at detailed personal accounts, but I'll try my best.
To start, I traveled with my wife (not a Ron Paul supporter) to the Illinois State Fair. I was wearing my Ron Paul Revolution tee shirt. As soon as we entered the fairgrounds, I encountered a young man who gave me directions to the Republican tent. So after my wife saw the cow made entirely out of butter, got a bunch of freebies, etc... we went to the tent. There were a few Ron Paul supporters there and one giuliani supporter. I told the Ron Paul supporter that was manning the tent that I would be back to volunteer, but had to find a building because they were announcing that we were about to endure 75 mile an hour winds and all that jazz. We went to a building, my wife went off on her own and I went back to the Republican tent when the rain slowed down. The weather reports were wrong, it did rain hard, but I never saw any high or even moderate winds.
When I returned I was handed a sign and a large stack of slim jims to pass out. So I got started by returning to the building because it had started to rain again. My first response was from some guy that didn't appreciate my sign. At this point I should note that I don't shout, I'm a very quiet guy and it can be hard to hear me at times. I'm NOT a people person, but I care enough about my country that I'm willing to step outside of my normal way of being to help Ron Paul get elected. So this guy tells me to get my political s*** away from him. I didn't even notice him there till he said that. Then he said something I found odd, he said he was a Republican, so I told him Ron Paul is too. He said no, he votes for whomever the republicans nominate. I was told this same thing without the rudeness by another guy later. It seems quite a few people dont care about having a hand in who represents their party.
So, I moved back to the entryway and waited for the rain to stop. About 5 people asked for literature and were talking about how wonderful the points on the slim jim were. I ended up telling a bunch of others about Ron Paul like this. Just being attentive and giving them a slim jim and talking to them if they wanted to know why I was walking around with a Ron Paul sign. I passed many other Ron Paul supporters. I went back to the tent, which was full of Ron Paul supporters at that point, with that one very lonely Giuliani supporter still there. Someone told me they really wished they had their camera cause they wanted a pic of all of us and that one lone Giuliani supporter :)
Ok, so I went to the poll with that group and once we realized we were in the wrong line and got into the poll line, I went to vote. First, I noticed that they were using touch screen machines. This of course bothered me, but I still voted. The vote also included a question aimed at illinois legislature. I then listened to the candidate's representatives speak and shook Kent Snyder's hand. He is a very intelligent, focused man and Ron Paul is both lucky as well as wise for having him.
After the speeches, I met up with my wife and we went around the fair. I won't bore you with those details, but I did carry my sign with and spoke to a few more. At 4:00 we headed back to the polling area and I found out that RP had placed third, which was fine since I don't count Romneys' votes since he pays for them making the results skewed. It would be difficult to tell how many of them will actually show up to vote for him unless he's going to pay for them to appear at the polling booths during the primaries, and I doubt the FEC rules would be cool with that. I was a bit surprised that Fred got second place since he had hardly any visible support there. Romney did have a ton of support and in fact I actually ran into him later on. He didn't show up till the end.
I'm not going to discuss the people who argued with the reporter or yelled "Fascist" and a few swear words causing a father to cover his kids ears.
Kent brought us over to a quiet area to talk and answer questions. He said we will be seeing alot of changes and the campaign is working to catch up to the support. He said the growth is continuing and encouraged us to keep telling others about the message of liberty. He also used me in an example of why they aren't outright accusing anyone of vote fraud. I might have missed a bit since my wife called me half-way through and I got up so I didn't bother anyone.
Once the meeting was over, I wanted to stay and talk a bit, but I had to run off cause my wife was being impatient. That's when I ran into Mitt sitting on a golf cart talking to his people and thanking them for their work. All in all it was a very very good day. Ron paul got twice the percent that he got in Iowa and he hasn't even campaigned here.
To start, I traveled with my wife (not a Ron Paul supporter) to the Illinois State Fair. I was wearing my Ron Paul Revolution tee shirt. As soon as we entered the fairgrounds, I encountered a young man who gave me directions to the Republican tent. So after my wife saw the cow made entirely out of butter, got a bunch of freebies, etc... we went to the tent. There were a few Ron Paul supporters there and one giuliani supporter. I told the Ron Paul supporter that was manning the tent that I would be back to volunteer, but had to find a building because they were announcing that we were about to endure 75 mile an hour winds and all that jazz. We went to a building, my wife went off on her own and I went back to the Republican tent when the rain slowed down. The weather reports were wrong, it did rain hard, but I never saw any high or even moderate winds.
When I returned I was handed a sign and a large stack of slim jims to pass out. So I got started by returning to the building because it had started to rain again. My first response was from some guy that didn't appreciate my sign. At this point I should note that I don't shout, I'm a very quiet guy and it can be hard to hear me at times. I'm NOT a people person, but I care enough about my country that I'm willing to step outside of my normal way of being to help Ron Paul get elected. So this guy tells me to get my political s*** away from him. I didn't even notice him there till he said that. Then he said something I found odd, he said he was a Republican, so I told him Ron Paul is too. He said no, he votes for whomever the republicans nominate. I was told this same thing without the rudeness by another guy later. It seems quite a few people dont care about having a hand in who represents their party.
So, I moved back to the entryway and waited for the rain to stop. About 5 people asked for literature and were talking about how wonderful the points on the slim jim were. I ended up telling a bunch of others about Ron Paul like this. Just being attentive and giving them a slim jim and talking to them if they wanted to know why I was walking around with a Ron Paul sign. I passed many other Ron Paul supporters. I went back to the tent, which was full of Ron Paul supporters at that point, with that one very lonely Giuliani supporter still there. Someone told me they really wished they had their camera cause they wanted a pic of all of us and that one lone Giuliani supporter :)
Ok, so I went to the poll with that group and once we realized we were in the wrong line and got into the poll line, I went to vote. First, I noticed that they were using touch screen machines. This of course bothered me, but I still voted. The vote also included a question aimed at illinois legislature. I then listened to the candidate's representatives speak and shook Kent Snyder's hand. He is a very intelligent, focused man and Ron Paul is both lucky as well as wise for having him.
After the speeches, I met up with my wife and we went around the fair. I won't bore you with those details, but I did carry my sign with and spoke to a few more. At 4:00 we headed back to the polling area and I found out that RP had placed third, which was fine since I don't count Romneys' votes since he pays for them making the results skewed. It would be difficult to tell how many of them will actually show up to vote for him unless he's going to pay for them to appear at the polling booths during the primaries, and I doubt the FEC rules would be cool with that. I was a bit surprised that Fred got second place since he had hardly any visible support there. Romney did have a ton of support and in fact I actually ran into him later on. He didn't show up till the end.
I'm not going to discuss the people who argued with the reporter or yelled "Fascist" and a few swear words causing a father to cover his kids ears.
Kent brought us over to a quiet area to talk and answer questions. He said we will be seeing alot of changes and the campaign is working to catch up to the support. He said the growth is continuing and encouraged us to keep telling others about the message of liberty. He also used me in an example of why they aren't outright accusing anyone of vote fraud. I might have missed a bit since my wife called me half-way through and I got up so I didn't bother anyone.
Once the meeting was over, I wanted to stay and talk a bit, but I had to run off cause my wife was being impatient. That's when I ran into Mitt sitting on a golf cart talking to his people and thanking them for their work. All in all it was a very very good day. Ron paul got twice the percent that he got in Iowa and he hasn't even campaigned here.