ASHEVILLE, NC — A few people trickled into the office of Buncombe County Democrats for canvassing on a sunny afternoon near Asheville, North Carolina, 12 days before the election. Only a few maps laid were out for Harris-Walz volunteers, eclipsed by those for a local race.
The chair of the local Democratic Party had a sticky note with a list of the precincts with the most registered Democrats who have still not voted: One was a ghost town the last time people tried to knock on doors, another almost completely destroyed from the floods.
The call sheets for phone calls were not set up. “We’re not doing that yet,” Kathie Kline, Buncombe County’s Democratic Party chair, said when a volunteer asked if they could phone bank, turning them away for the day.