A tale of two volunteers at the polls — different affiliation, shared passion

Two political volunteers were separated by about a foot of sidewalk Tuesday night as it neared 6 p.m. in Poolesville, Maryland. Each handed out fliers suggesting who to vote for to passersby as they entered the polling place at John Poole Middle School.

Only the truest of procrastinators trickled into the facility two hours before the polls closed. Still, Patty Davis, 78, and Susan Corfman, 66, were determined to offer each one a sample ballot who seemed even remotely interested.

The women each sat on lawn chairs under tents. Their tables, facing one another, were covered in pamphlets and reading material supporting candidates. For Davis, those candidates were Republicans, and for Corfman, they were Democrats.

Davis, with the Rural Women’s Republican Club, located herself at a polling place in a community that lived up to her organization’s name. To get to Poolesville from almost any other part of Montgomery County, one will drive past sprawling farmland, horse stables, grazing cows and grain silos to reach the western portion of the county near the Virginia border.

“We’re going to make America great again,” Davis said in an unmissable southern accent. “Close the border. Drill baby drill.”

Originally from a small town in Texas, Davis felt Donald Trump, the former president and Republican presidential nominee, spoke more to her background. He’s less insulated in the D.C. climate and makes an effort to reach Americans across communities, she said.

“He went into the Bronx, went to barber shops. He really wanted to connect with all of the Americans and not just the white guys down the street or whatever,” said Davis, a retired special education teacher. “Everybody got to see through that the kind of person he really is.”

Corfman signed up to man the table when a neighbor asked her to help out. She’s stressed about the very same prospect that excites Davis: Trump winning.

“I’m worried about a Trump America,” said Corfman, a retired occupational therapist in Montgomery County schools. “He wants to be a dictator. It’s bad. He’s not a good person, and he’s losing his mind.”

Corfman said she doesn’t understand Trump’s appeal to so many Americans.

“It’s just interesting how he gets people behind him,” she said. “It’s just mind-boggling.”

In Davis’s eyes, Trump is simply misunderstood. One term is not enough. The naysayers don’t understand all Trump is capable of.

“When he went into office, he didn’t really know all the opportunities there were to help people. He just thought, ‘Well, we’ll get the financial thing straightened out because that was where he came from in business,'” Davis said. “I don’t think when he got into it, he realized all the opportunities to help people.”

Another term will allow him to break ground on issues he didn’t have the time for in the first term. He’ll take advantage of those presidential opportunities, Davis said.

With a little over an hour left for voting, people entering the polling place approached both women’s tables at a nearly exactly even frequency. It was impossible to tell which way the rural heart of a deep blue county would swing.