Please answer the door. It's just me.

As an in-district candidate you have to gather at least 300 but no more than 750 signatures of registered voters within your district to get your name on the ballot. Instead of standing outside a grocery store or some other high traffic area, I'm lugging my clipboard door to door. Sure it's the hard way, but it's also a great chance to meet voters in person. I like going door to door. You never know what that opening door is going to bring. Most people are wary at first, probably afraid that I'm selling something or trying to save their soul. They seem almost relieved that all I'm after is a signature. Most people are nice. I'd say about one out of ten are less than polite. I can't really blame them. I don't like getting interrupted by the door bell either. Everybody has a story. Some are willing to share it with you. Like Saturday the guy who signed with very shaky hands. He had just finished his first marathon and was still proudly wearing his "I Finished" shirt. There was the woman with the sleeping newborn in her arms who actually offered to sign left-handed (I declined. No signature is worth waking a little baby.) There was the retiree with the very thick accent who seemed thrilled that a candidate was talking to her. New immigrants appreciate our democracy in a way that most of us can't fathom. Last night I allowed myself to violate one of the number one rules of door to door. Never spend more than five minutes with a voter. If you have lengthy conversations with everyone, you will never cover enough ground. This particular person wanted very much to talk to me. Being an architect he had a lot of opinions about the City's competitive bidding process. He schooled me on the downside of design-build and I have to admit I'm going to revisit that topic. He gave me some things to think about. He quizzed me on my education. My experience. We talked about design guidelines, context, the relationship between contractors and architects. After about thirty minutes he signed my petition. It was getting dark so I headed home. My total signatures for the night? Three. I don't mind. I learned something and that's always valuable. I'll just have to make it up tonight.