With less than nine weeks until Election Day, some SF State students are doing their part to get out the vote for the upcoming presidential election by volunteering for President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry’s campaigns.

“I’ve always been the kind of person where I can’t sit on the sidelines of something,” said 27-year-old Derek Wray, a criminal justice major and volunteer for Bush-Cheney ’04. “If I believe in something, I believe in it 110 percent.”

Wray is president of the College Republicans and spent the summer months phone banking, registering voters, handing out campaign bumper stickers and signs at booths, and recruiting volunteers. He is a “city captain” overseeing about 30 volunteers in South San Francisco where he lives.

Westley McGaughey took advantage of his free time during the summer months by volunteering for the Kerry-Edwards 2004 campaign.

“I work a lot. I’m a typical SF State student. I’m dirt poor and I have to work to pay my bills,” McGaughey said.  “So when summer came around, I was like, wow, I have some time.”

Volunteers perform a variety of tasks. This past weekend, precinct walks began with volunteers going door to door in the hopes of registering voters and discussing campaign issues. They also help out administrative tasks like campaign mailings or pass out materials like window signs and bumper stickers.

Many people associate volunteering with phone banking – where volunteers call the homes of registered voters in an effort to get them to donate money or volunteer themselves. Wray describes it as “suffering” and McGaughey calls it a “necessary evil.”

“I hate being called and I hate (solicitors) knocking on my door,” Wray said.

During a shift of phone banking, both volunteers said they called about 50 homes. Most calls were unanswered. They might speak to about ten people and of those, only one or two might be interested participating in the campaign. The rest tend to say they support a specific candidate but do not have the time to do more.

But volunteering is not limited to blind telephone calls. Owen Stephens is the volunteer coordinator for the Democratic National Committee in San Francisco. He said students could help out with anything from precinct walking to stuffing envelopes.

“We’re asking them to put in work hours on their time,” Stephens said. “So we are very flexible.”

Although people might think the election is all but decided in a vastly Democratic city like San Francisco, Stephens said volunteers are still needed to reach out to many of the city’s communities that are underserved in terms of political knowledge.

“A lot of people are busy and a lot of people do get it, but in San Francisco there are still a large number of people that don’t,” Stephens said. “So people should take that time, as busy as they are, three hours a week. That three hours a week may get the word out to disadvantaged communities.”

McGaughey and Wray said it is integral to motivate voters and educate them on the issues.

“(Volunteering is) not that important in terms of gaining electoral votes in the Bay Area,” McGaughey said. “It’s important to me in that there are a lot of underrepresented groups in the Bay Area that need to be educated in political drama and how it happens and they’re taxpayers too and they need to know and they need to vote.”

Wray volunteered at the Bush campaign booth at the San Mateo County Fair this month. About 60 people registered to vote but Wray said the best part was meeting people. He heard new reasons to support the president and new criticisms. Wray also debated Bush opponents who stopped by the booth.

“I might not necessarily turn them into a raving George Bush fan,” said Wray.
“But I think I open up or keep people’s minds open to the possibility of voting for him (Bush).”

As a working political science major and president of the newly-formed College Democrats, McGaughey said volunteering is not for everyone. It is a time commitment but for those who can, campaigns need them.

“Although these campaigns cost millions and millions and millions of dollars and they have the ability to fundraise that, it doesn’t pay for everything,” he said.

One example was John Kerry’s unscheduled stop in San Francisco last week. The Democratic National Committee called McGaughey and told him about the last minute campaign swing. They asked him to volunteer as a driver for the motorcade. McGaughey picked up the rental car and arrived at the airport tarmac. He drove the fifth car – for the official campaign film crew - in a motorcade of 13 vehicles. All of the drivers were volunteers and McGaughey said the car rentals were donated.

“It was totally fun. It was a crap volunteer job but it was an example of a crucial volunteer job because they don’t have enough money to pay people,” McGaughey said.

If a student cannot spare the time to volunteer, both McGaughey and Wray said the most important thing students can do is understand campaign issues.

“If you have the time to do it and you’re motivated to do it, fabulous. We’d love to have you, but more importantly is your educated vote,” said McGaughey. “Read the newspaper. Read, read, read.”

“I don’t think people should blindly vote,” Wray said. “Don’t just check the Republican column because you’re a Republican and you assume he’s a good guy.”