EMBEDDED WITH

OBAMA’S VOLUNTEERS,
IN MIAMI
Diary, October 2012
Lancelot Hamelin
Cynthia Charpentreau

«7,000 black Americans have been purged

from electoral rolls in Florida by Governor
Rick Scott:  this is why we will not allow the
Republicans to pass us by.»
Sunday 7th October 2012 : who still do not feature on the electoral rolls.
The only way is to seek them out one by one,
Garry Antoine turns the steering wheel all the way to their homes, and communities.
of his car with one hand. With the other hand, Or at university or the supermarket. And even
he rips open a plastic sachet. From out of it, at night, outside cinemas or nightclubs.
he takes a reptile-shaped car air-freshener. As
though he lived in it, his red Isuzu Rodeo 4x4 Garry Antoine is a Haitian, living and working
is strewn with scattered documents, clothes, in New York. A medical researcher, he left his
packets of biscuits and an array of different wife, and has come to spend six months of his
battery chargers. But he explains to me life serving the Obama campaign. After two
that what stinks, is the umbrella. In Miami, in months just as a voluntary worker, in Tampa,
October, it rains almost every day. Between Florida, Garry joined the staff of Organizing for
one shower and the next, an umbrella has no America. He has been sent to Miami, to work
time to dry out. with the Little Haiti community.

Garry Antoine is dressed meticulously, in a suit Garry has been visiting the churches every
and yellow silk tie. It is Sunday and he has to Sunday for the last month. At the “église
do the rounds of Little Haiti’s churches in order baptiste haïtienne Emmanuel”, parishioners
to organize the volunteer teams. greet him, as does the muscle-bound priest
with him he negotiated the setting up of the
« Have you registered to vote? »  On the campus of Barry University, Diana registers in order to be
At this point in the campaign, the mission of table for the volunteers to set themselves down eligible to vote.
the volunteers to register those US citizens at. Ladies, dressed up to the nines, in their

fancy hats and high heels, and Bibles under the same golf club as his father. Up to the age
their arms,  babble around the young Haitian. of eighteen years old, Bob thought of himself
He asks them: “Have you registered to vote, as a Republican. But Nixon made him change
ladies ?” sides. Reagan and the Bushes did not bring
This particular Sunday is a special one. him back again.
Garry and the youngsters who have joined us
are deep in concentration. The parishioners who Bob puts his safari hat on and takes us off on
come and fill out their form or ask questions are the great door-to-door adventure.
worried: there are only two days left to register.
After 6pm, once people have returned home
The deadline is Tuesday the 9th October. After from work, Bob knocks on doors of houses
that date, those who are not registered will not in the eastern part of Miami Shores: dwellings
be eligible to vote. are low, as elsewhere in Florida, opulent, and
increasingly luxurious the closer you are to the
shore.
Monday 8th October
Bob carries a badge bearing his name and
Bob Domlesky lives in a lavish house in a small clipboard holding a map of the
a wealthy area of Miami Shores. Originally from neighbourhood, and a list of names and
Colorado, Bob has lived in Miami for decades. addresses, along with small blue cards to be
He was director of five companies and today, filled in by those who have made up their minds
now retired, he works as a consultant. to vote for the Democrats. Canvassing. Nothing
more than that: a little chat on the doorstep.
He tells of when, he was ten, he met Bob introduces himself as a neighbour, which
Gary contacts his volunteers : this Sunday, there is a lack of volunteers to cover churchgoers leaving
Einsenhower. The president used to play in makes people less reluctant to open their door
church in Little Haiti.
 Don’t mention Obama and all the broken rights campaigner. With her broken voice Organizers, writes some new abbreviations on
promises... Go make them understand that she explains : “My vote counts, but I count the board: POTUS.
four years isn’t long, for a president. When amongst everyone else. Michelle Obama said
you’re struggling for survival like them, it’s a in her first speech that school is what counts “President of the United States.”
long time. In terms of the campaign, a lot is at most in society. And in a school, the lady that
stake in this neighbourhood. On election day sweeps up counts just as much as the teacher. As if there was not enough pressure already:
we’re going to put on a bus for people. They This campaign is like a tapestry, each of us is a the day after tomorrow. Obama is coming to
often have two or three jobs in a day, and no thread that brings its own colour and binds the Miami. He will speak before his subjects, in
Between two «door-to-door» visits, Bob Domlesky car. The election day is on a Tuesday. I don’t whole thing together.” the University of Miami’s gymnasium, in Coral
calls his daughter in Harvard, the school where know many bosses in the building or cleaning Gables, the city’s upmarket neighbourhood.
Obama and Mit Romney studied. business who’ll give their employees a half day In her youth, Val knew Michael Schwerner. He
off to go and vote Obama. Did you know that was one of the three men murdered by the Klu Several staff members are assigned to
the Everglades is the only place in the world Klux Klan on the road to Meridian, Mississipi, organizing the event. This is how the President
to him. He then explains that he has come to where crocodiles and alligators can cohabit?”. during the “Summer of Freedom”. It is one of operates: his visits are announced at the last
talk about the elections, “in the President’s the tragic episodes in the civil rights struggle. minute.
name”. He banks on the respect that the word At the close of the day, we go to the volunteers It is also the story behind the film Mississipi
“president” brings, allowing him to gather office in the Miami Gardens neighbourhood. Burning. It is a bad memory in Val’s life. Val
precious information. The area’s headquarters has been set up offered her wedding veil to Mick’s wife. This Mardi 9 octobre
in rented premises for the duration of the election understandably means a lot to her.
Two young girls hold on to their dog by the campaign, in a strip-mall. This is the final day At the Miami Gardens office, the
collar and seem to have settled on voting for before the inscriptions deadline. The day is coming to an end, and the volunteers pressure is on. It is the last day for registering
Obama. A newcomer, of South American origin, carry on inputting form after form. But then, voters on the electoral roll. Part of the staff also
gives what Bob calls a “no hablo answer”. A Ladies from the neighbourhood are sitting a coup de theatre: Derrick, one of the Field has to coordinate welcoming the President at
very gentlemanly man from the South explains behind a citadel of computers. Into a computer
in a suave manner that he is still unsure. He will application, they input data gathered by the
wait and see before coming to a decision. Bob volunteers out in the field. This enables the
does not force him. Another man refuses to give Democratic party to build up what is no less
his opinion: he works for NBC and in 2008, a than a database of the thousands of people
journalist was fired for saying too much on the interviewed : surname, first names, date of
subject. Bob engages him in conversation by birth, address, telephone numbers and email
talking about his garden decoration. address, race/ethnicity group and membership
of a political party.
Before letting us head off, Bob wants to take us
on a short trip in the car, to the west of Miami Here, at the home of the Democrats, this data
Shores. This is the other side of the street... bank is called Vote Builder.
The houses could not be more dissimilar:
dilapidated, with bars to protect the windows This is what is known as microtargetting, a
and gardens fenced off on all sides. Following technique which draws its inspiration from
the subprimes crisis, the poorest Haitians from marketing. In how they deal with citizens, the
Little Haiti moved into this neighbourhood, political parties proceed in the same way as
with several families sometimes living in the commercial enterprises do with consumers:
same building. Some of the shacks have been they track down their habits, before compiling
abandoned, soon to fall into the hands of and analyzing them in order to better their
squatters, dealers and smack-heads. performance.

“The very rich and the very poor cohabit the One lady is wearing a t-shirt which says:
same areas. An invisible wall keeps us apart. “I am one in a million”. The lady’s name is
Here people feel let down by the government. Val. She is a retired lawyer and veteran civil
A volunteer brings her batch of home-made badges.
 years old, dressed in their orange t-shirts from fantastic. There’s a huge task ahead of us:
school, make telephone calls. They ask, self- phone calls and door-to-door visits. We need
assuredly: “Good day, I’m calling on behalf of to be sure that all the people registered can go
the Obama campaign, would you a have couple and vote, and that each of them wakes up on
of minutes to talk? Are you registered on the time. It will be up to us to tell them to leave their
electoral rolls? May I ask you if President Obama homes to go and vote. And to vote in advance.
can count on your vote for this election?” There’s a lot of work to be done, but tonight,
we can be proud of what we have achieved:
Johnny and his friend have come with their our aim was to register 300,000 persons.
grandmother, and are lending a hand. You’ve done 350,000. This will be a fine gift for
President Obama.”
The person at the other end of the line to the
boy seems to give an aggressive response. Val has forgotten to put out the cigarette that
Johnny takes it in his stride. He tries to enter she had gone to smoke in the car-park. Tears
into conversation, by talking about world well up in her eyes. She applauds so much that
events. the cigarette falls from her hand. You might
say that the pattern of the tapestry has been
If his listener is favourable towards the enriched by thousands of threads, and new
President, Johnny invites the person to do colours. ◊
“early voting”. In effect, in addition to the 6th
After school, Johnny and his buddy go with Grandma to the volunteers office. Their job: gather votes for November, people can vote between the 27th
Obama. October and the 3rd November. The idea is
avoid overcrowding at polling stations, and
the same time. has been written on his file. “D” for Democrat. long queues which might put people off. But
In all probability, this is a victim of the “purge” Republicans want to limit early voting, and the
The field teams continue to bring in never- that the Republican governor, Rick Scott, has danger of it being to Obama’s advantage.
ending bundles of forms needing to be inputted been accused of.
before this evening. The ladies in their citadel While Johnny answers my questions, with all
of computers are tense. The way it works is simple and effective. It the earnestness of twelve-year-old, a group of
consists of putting a spanner in the works of younger children storms into the office. They
In addition to registering these new individuals Democratic voters: the individual’s citizenship ask for banners, yelling: “Obama! Obama!”
on the electoral rolls, there are other forms to is brought into question. Either this or the
check. citizen’s legal history is evoked, even if the Val gives them banners recovered from the
person has “served his sentence” and is is previous campaign: “YES WE CAN”. In doing
These are the small blue cards filled in at the now eligible. In this way, the person has to so, she makes them promise to ask all members
door-to-door stage, by voters who have made go through the process of proving his or her of their family to check they are registered.
up their minds to vote for Obama. These people eligibility to vote once more. “Yes, madam!”
need to be checked on the electoral register, a
public record, to confirm their legal status, and And this is not just a case of scaremongering Evening comes: 8 o’clock: the deadline is up.
that they can vote. If necessary, certain items of and paranoid victimization: the Department
information may have to be updated, a change of Justice has filed a complaint against these Steven Montoya, a curly-haired young man,
of address or telephone number for example... purges, demanding that Rick Scott ceases dressed in shorts and t-shirt, who directs
manoeuvres of this kind. To this day, seven operations in Miami, brings everyone together.
Whilst Val is checking the details of a man thousand black Americans in Florida have It is over. Just this battle, though, because the
registered on the electoral roll, a window received the small piece of paper asking them war will go on until the 6th November.
pops up on the screen: “Whoops! This person to prove they are not «convicted felons».
cannot be displayed!”. What does this mean? “Thanks to all of you. This first stage of the
His first name is Muhammad and the letter “D” At one table, two children aged around twelve campaign has come to an end. You’ve been