One group of volunteers says it has knocked on 20,000 doors in San Diego County this campaign season. They're not campaign staffers asking for residents' votes. They're just asking residents to vote.
More than 400 volunteers for the San Diego Organizing Project have spent their weekends knocking on doors in neighborhoods with low voter turnout. They're asking infrequent voters to get to the polls Tuesday so their communities can gain the ears of local politicians.
Organizer Hannah Gravette said they're focusing on disenfranchised communities where voters may distrust the process: City Heights, southeastern San Diego, Barrio Logan, Chula Vista, National City and Oceanside.
"People feel like their vote doesn't matter, you know. So we're telling people, 'Don't think of your vote as, like, one individual vote. Think about this entire block all going out to vote together,'" Gravette said. "It's when we can get that whole community to vote when actually things will change.
Volunteers have gotten 8,000 infrequent voters to pledge that they will vote this time. Gravette said about 70 percent of those they reached out to before the 2012 mid-term elections made good on that promise.
Volunteers will be knocking on doors through Tuesday.
Another group, Alliance San Diego, has also been working to get more people to turn out to vote in November than did for the June primary, when 27 percent of the county's registered voters cast ballots. That was a record low for a gubernatorial primary.
Alliance San Diego, an advocacy group for social justice, also has been going door-to-door to reach voters and calling them on the phone to encourage them to cast ballots. They've also launched an online campaign at voteforsd.org.
The group has also been asking homeowners to post signs in their front yards telling people to vote.
