Let the October Madness Cease

It's October 1. Know what that means? Only ten more days (here in North Carolina anyway) to get your voter registration completed. And know what that means? Only ten more days for me to be harassed, everywhere I go, by people desperate that I have registered.

It's really, really annoying.

Now, I live in a state which is normally solid red, which means we don't get much campaigning here (except for the local stuff). But this year, someone (read: Senator Obama) decided North Carolina is actually a swing state. Lo and behold... now we are. McCain and Obama are only three points apart in the polls here in NC, which is sort of unheard of.

What this means for Average Joe Voter is an onslaught of campaign ads, signs in every yard, stickers on every car, and the dreaded (no, loathed) volunteers in every corner of our lives, making sure we're going to register to vote.

They're at the grocery store. They're at gas stations (well, at least they'll catch a crowd that way). They're on street corners waiting for people to stop at red lights. They're outside the dry cleaners. They're most definitely at the library. And, most troubling to me, they're at my Starbucks.

One thing I have been loving about my Saturday mornings now that the weather has cooled off (kind of cooled off, anyway) is that on the way to Gymboree, I can stop for a nice yummy warm cup of chocolate and whipped cream with a little coffee thrown in. I enjoy this not so much for the caffeine (still got a nursing baby here, folks) but for the comfort of enjoying a favorite beverage and the lovely aroma it brings to my car. (Yes, seriously.)

But you know what can mess up a beautiful mocha moment? A couple of ladies wearing Obamamamma buttons disrupting my exit with harassment (yeah, I said it) about voter registration. Every week. Now, Obamamammaladies, this is a relatively low-trafficked Starbucks (from what I can tell). And you're only there on Saturday mornings. And you're there three Saturdays in a row. Do you think you're reaching new voters each week? You're not. You're just annoying the same people you have already spoken to, multiple times. haven't you noticed that everyone tells you they've registered already? I'm ok with you asking -- once -- if I have registered to vote... if it's at, say, the library or on other government- or city-owned grounds. I mean, I know there are probably people who wouldn't think about registering to vote until it was too late, and the reminder is helpful, and I, too, want as many people to vote as possible. I get what you're doing, and I respect the cause, I really do. But at Starbucks? The same Starbucks? Week after week at the same time?? I beg for an immediate cease fire, because my nerves are shot.

Which is exactly what I told the person who answered the phone at Starbucks on Saturday morning, when I called to tell them I pulled into their parking lot and right back out again when I saw the voterbamamamma ladies out there. I thought they should know why they just lost a sale. (I don't think they cared much, but they might should have. Word on the street is they can't afford to lose any coffee sales.)

(I hate to point fingers but I must say that these crusaders for voter registration, when they're wearing paraphernalia for a particular party or candidate -- and admittedly many are not -- are always Obama supporters. Every single time. You're not helping your cause, people. Not to mention, shouldn't voter registration be a bipartisan goal?)

Let me grocery shop in peace. Let me pick up my dry cleaning (ok, Mark's dry cleaning... you know I don't really even get dressed) in peace. Let me stop at a red light in toddler-babbling peace. Let me sip a hot decaffeinated chocolate and coffee beverage in peace. I say we stop the madness. Like, today. And if that can't happen, then I am counting down the next ten days to a new serenity in these parts.