The Civil Participation Activity that I have chosen is to become a volunteer at the Victory Republican Center to re-elect President Bush in the 2004 election. The reason I chose this particular project was so I could get a chance to see how the system really works when it comes to presidential elections in the United States and to support my favored candidate in the process since I am unable to vote. When I heard the requirements for this project, I was certain that I wanted to do something pertaining to the 2004 elections. I found a place called the Victory Republican Center relatively close to where I live, and then decided to volunteer in hopes of finding out the answers to certain questions I had about the campaigning process. Having never voted before, I had many questions about how these centers operate, like how they are funded and how they use the information they collect from the voters they call regarding how these people are going to vote and why.
             It was slightly surprising to see how relaxed the office at the campaign center was. It turns out that in the sense of calling a seemingly endless list of people on a prepaid cellular telephone, everything was the same from one day to the next, whether it was election day or not. One difference was that, on election day, one of the few paid staff members comes around to the tables that you sit at when calling people and asks if you are eighteen years of age or older. If you are, you may get to accompany the staff member to the polls to make sure that no one is participating in any form of campaigning inside the polling areas. The main difference between a normal campaigning day before the election and Election Day was that, on Election Day, there is no one sent from the campaign center to give any personal attention to the voting target group, such as going door to door or handing out flyers.
             Some of my experience is contrary to what I believed would happen. It was ...