Anyone who volunteers for a political campaign or organization asks themself this question at some point: “Does what I’m doing actually matter?” Does it matter that I just spend two days in Bend, going to to 70 doors and talking to about two dozen people? Did I make a difference? Change anything?

If I had just stayed home, would it have made any difference at all?

I talked to one guy yesterday who said he wasn’t voting for either Obama or McCain; he’d be voting for a third-party candidate. He then recited a list of available third-parties that went from Pacific Green to Libertarian; kind of lacking in any coherence other than they were not Democratic or Republican. But what I was then able to do was educate him on the so-called “Open Primary” initiative and how it would destroy third-parties in Oregon. He hadn’t even heard of it, much less begun to become educated. But by being the first one to this man, I may have ensured that he’ll vote against it.

For the rest, I either spoke to people who were going to vote for Judy Steigler, the House District 54 candidate we were walking for in Bend, or I introduced her to them. And given how vital name-recognition is in a campaign, the two or three minutes I spent on the doorstep with them may be what was needed to push their vote Judy’s way.

Or, given that I spoke to mostly Dems (a few non-affiliated voters as well), maybe they would be Judy voters no matter what. Her Republican incumbent opponent is pretty bad: he works in the extraction industries (timber, mining) and has apparently skipped even showing up at the Legislature 22% of the time without excuse — he just didn’t bother to show up. But a lot of people vote for the incumbent just because he or she is the incumbent. We can’t assume that being a lousy representative will lose someone a vote or that being a better choice, as Judy is, automatically earns her votes.

The fact of the matter is that most people need to be told how to vote. Not blatantly or without guidance. Few people have any idea who the candidates are, especially the challengers, and they lack most of the information they need to make an informed decision. The media has no intention of educating voters; their job is to sell advertising, so they stick to sensationalism and stories that are easy to tell — i.e., whatever rumors or contrivance is floating around the rest of the media. Blogs can be helpful, but they can also be heinous: why should a voter trust DailyKos over Drudge when all they know of them is what their political opponents say about them?

What influences people more than anything else is personal contact. Talking to a live human being, another citizen or the candidate him- or herself. Be the person on that person’s doorstep, and you have taken a huge step towards winning that person’s vote and support. A candidate can only get to so many doors during an election. The more, the better, of course. But if volunteer supporters can be at the door instead, that’s almost as good. Their willingness to get out and walk the neighborhood for a candidates is very influential to people.

So to the question of whether my weekend walking the streets of Bend mattered: Yes. For the secondary question — In what way? — well, it’s a two-part answer. One, I’ll never know if I turn someone from a non-voter or an R-voter into a Judy Steigler voter. But I do know that I added my few pebbles to those of thousands of other Oregonians this year. Because we each give a few hours during the week or month, there is an overall effect much greater than any of us could accomplish alone. And it does require each of us acting in our own small way. Yes, I could have stayed home this weekend and my specific contribution probably would have no effect. But it’s not the immediate actions that matter so much as the willingness to get involved at all and to do so when the opportunity arises.

The earth was formed from tiny pieces of dust and rock over billions of years. That’s how you create something big and wonderful: Slowly, using the smallest of objects and actions. Every person, every action does matter. Over time, and in unity with others, it all matters.