Ask anyone who’s ever worked in politics, particularly grassroots organizing and activism, and they’ll tell you that it’s nearly impossible to quantify the amount of hard work required, due to the complex nature of canvassing and engaging with the general public. With COVID-19 altering so much of our world over the last nine months, the recent election was bound to be even more hectic and uncertain than any presidential cycle in recent memory.

When I first saw that there were remote canvassing positions available within Democracy For All - PennFuture, despite my background, I had never heard of it or Regional Director Josie Lopez of Allentown. With a little research, I learned that PennFuture is a statewide environmental advocacy organization founded in 1998, while its subsidiary, Democracy For All, is a fairly new program meant to increase and expand public engagement in the democratic process, particularly in underserved communities, such as those with higher concentrations of black and brown, lower-income residents.

A mutual friend shared her post on Facebook in early September in which she called for interested parties to reach out about joining her growing team. Since I had been furloughed from my full-time warehousing job in the spring and had focused on freelance remote work such as journalism and data research through the summer months, a more stable, if temporary, position doing something I was passionate about seemed appealing to me.

With my interest piqued, I quickly reached out and scheduled an interview with Josie, and within five minutes of speaking to her, I knew her team was the one that I wanted to focus my efforts with. Since I’d been involved in politics locally on a strictly voluntary level for the last few years, as well as having earned a B.A. in political science from Kutztown University over a decade ago, it felt somewhat serendipitous. The opportunity to do something that I would likely be doing anyway (and to get PAID for it!) was an easy decision.

As for the work itself, it seemed fairly straightforward, if somewhat tedious. We were to spend several hours a day phone and text-banking with the intention of helping to educate and inform potential voters about the upcoming election here in Pennsylvania. The fact that PennFuture was paying a living wage to do this – $15 an hour, with the option of benefits including health insurance – felt almost too good to be true. I’ve worked just as hard for a lot less in my 20 years as a member of the labor force.

Lopez, a professional photographer by trade, never misled us about what we were signing up for. With COVID-19 and newly-implemented mail-in balloting ensuring that this would be a unique – and monumental – election in recent memory, it was never going to be without its challenges. Other than when she dropped off a tablet and headset to me when I first started, the entirety of the team’s communication would be digital – through Zoom meetings, Slack chats and emails. There was no physical office and what little face-to-face work DFA would be doing was strictly voluntary.

Not surprisingly, I learned that spending seven to eight hours a day, four or five days a week, using an autodialer to call unsuspecting folks is wholly unglamorous and mostly thankless work. Being screamed at by rude, angry people in the middle of a highly-contentious election during a period of unprecedented partisanship was exhausting at times and certainly not for the thin-skinned.

While Josie never told us to put up with abuse – in fact, she strongly advised the opposite, to NOT to put up with it – the fact was, it was unavoidable. We often had group ‘huddles’ via Zoom during our shifts in which we shared ‘horror stories’ and vented about our experiences. These sessions would prove invaluable, especially as October rolled on and we got closer to the big day – Nov. 3.

Another aspect which kept us going during our worst moments, other than her leadership, was the composition of the team she assembled. Once our team disbanded after the election, I conducted interviews with Lopez and several of our coworkers and I asked her what she had been looking for during the hiring process. She said her goal was “to form a team that was not only a mirror of the world we live in, (but) a team that was filled with people who believe in change.”

Our team of close to 20 canvassers was very much in line with her vision, with an extraordinarily wide range of ages, ethnicities, gender identities, education levels and more represented among us. It felt apropos that our team would truly look like America. As a middle-class, straight, white, cisgender man in his 30s, it was inspiring to meet these folks, many of whom came from positions nowhere near as privileged as mine. They were so passionate, intelligent and most of all, accomplished – some at such a young age, too.

It wasn’t just the makeup of the team that was so different to me, it was also the way that it operated. Josie, a Kutztown alumnus like myself, made it clear that even though our work was extremely important, it was by no means to be our only priority for those months. She made it a point to be flexible with scheduling, especially with so many of us having multiple projects, school, childcare and more to juggle.

“Understanding people’s schedules and being flexible to individuals’ lives really leads to a more productive workplace and morale,” she said, and she backed up those words with her actions.

One of our Team Leads, Harlem-by-way-of-the-Poconos-native Shanyah Watts, is in her final year at historically-black Howard University in Washington, D.C. She, like many of us, has a ‘side hustle,’ as the kids call it these days. Called NHerBeauty, it is a lifestyle brand dedicated to community-building and empowerment of young women. Watts’ experience especially helped her strengthen her multi-tasking skills, she said.

“I did not know I was capable of record-keeping, sending emails, scheduling (observations) and managing trackers and important documents all while canvassing on the phone!”

Another teammate, Felicia Lockett of Bethlehem, is the executive director of Lehigh Valley Girls Rock, a nonprofit organization which offers several music and art related programs to female, transgender and non-binary folks, particularly youth. Founded in 2014, LVGR had just recently become secure enough financially for her to act as their only full-time employee.

Sadly, the pandemic saw the organization – like so many others this year – lose sources of funding and income. Like many of us, Lockett was grateful for the opportunity to work remotely during COVID-19, having lost income elsewhere.

“I was so happy to find a job that I could do safely from home while earning a living wage,” she said.

Several of our teammates were college students dealing with a stressful, unconventional semester and appreciated the opportunity to earn money while focusing on their studies. Dieruff HS graduate Yumaira Saavedra-Mozo, who’s currently in her first year at Kutztown, spoke highly of the skills she learned while on the job, particularly initiating contact with strangers.

“I learned to talk to people and how to start a conversation comfortably through the phone,” she said.

For Williamsport’s Rachel Fatherly, a 2016 graduate of Penn State as well as an Olympic powerlifting hopeful, the job also provided an opportunity to develop and sharpen the ability to meaningfully communicate with less-than-enthusiastic participants.

“I learned how to communicate and engage with individuals who were annoyed,” she said, which will likely come in handy as she finishes her master’s degree in professional counseling and embarks upon her career.

While this election season was perhaps one of the most unique, challenging and contentious in American history, our team’s shared experience gave us a sense of closeness, despite the temporary, remote nature of the gig and with our team members scattered across the eastern half of the state, from the Scranton area to the Philadelphia suburbs (and in Watts’ case, outside Pennsylvania entirely). My former teammates and newfound friends one after another cited the culture in our team and the comfort our friendly, accepting members provided.

“I developed a different level of love and respect for each of my coworkers, so when it ended I felt like our family was being split apart,” Watts said. Another team leader, Jose Salas of the Hazleton area, added, “I felt it was a workplace in which you didn’t have to hide your feelings or your character. It was very much encouraged for you to be your authentic self. That was a nice change of pace, especially during this pandemic when most folks are already stressed.”

Fatherly also spoke highly of the camaraderie among our team and its familial qualities – in her case, quite literally, as her retired parents, Reginald and Theresa, were also members of the team. They provided a calming, mature presence at times when it was very much needed, and Reginald even lent his ‘Morgan Freeman-esque’ narration skill to a video produced by the team.

Ultimately, with record turnout all across the country, Pennsylvania was no exception. Since driving turnout was the ultimate purpose of the venture, seeing the sheer volume of votes, regardless of who won, felt extraordinarily validating. While it might be impossible to know how many people who otherwise wouldn’t have voted wound up casting a ballot directly due to our efforts, it’s safe to say that we made a difference, no matter how slim. Every time we were screamed and cursed at, accused of being part of some elaborate conspiracy or simply hung up on, the results felt worth it – far beyond the weekly paycheck it provided.

My coworkers felt the same.

“A few people that I spoke with got registered for the first time or decided not to abstain from voting this year directly because of the conversation that we had,” Lockett said.

Salas said he was particularly proud of helping to enfranchise convicted felons who have since paid their debt to society but perhaps weren’t aware that they are legally allowed to vote in Pennsylvania (which is not necessarily true in other states).

“They (would) usually just try to get you off the phone saying that they aren’t eligible to vote,” he said. “It’s what they have been told for a long time and no one let them know (otherwise).”

Going forward, Lopez said that she intends to continue working with folks she met through DFA, albeit outside the organization, to prepare for the 2021 election cycle.

“We contacted over 800,000 people; that’s incredible,” she said. “I have never worked with a better group of humans.”

Some of my coworkers, like Saavedra-Mozo, Watts and Fatherly, have more education in their immediate futures. Lockett has plans to continue Lehigh Valley Girls Rock on a voluntary basis for now, with eyes set on resuming their annual Girls Rock summer camp program in 2021.

Others, like myself, are a bit more undecided – after all, spreading awareness of the democratic process isn’t treated much as an ongoing effort, particularly in ‘off-cycle’ years, despite the fact that there will be important elections in 2021 all across America. There will surely be nowhere near the amount of attention and funding directed toward those races as there was this year, and without them, far fewer paid positions in organizations such as Democracy For All.

Despite our best intentions, none of us truly know what the future may hold, but I feel pretty satisfied with what I did to help preserve and strengthen American democracy. Although I’m sure I won’t necessarily look back on 2020 and describe the feelings it provided as overwhelmingly “hopeful,” I can say that working with PennFuture, Lopez and the rest of these fantastic people kept my spirit afloat during some pretty dark days, and I’ll always be extremely proud to say I did my part.