They also recall being told by their manager to drive around the rest of their unit despite having flu-like symptoms after the work led to them spending up to 12 hours a day in the desert heat.
“One day, I was sick, and I felt like shit,” the former door knocker alleges. “I got into the car and the boss walked out and saw me. I looked like a zombie.” Still, they kept pounding the pavement, kitted out in America PAC merch and dropping literature in favor of Trump.
Canvassers in another unit, run under the Hispanic Leadership Alliance—which received $100,000 from Crow earlier this year and $825,000, within the past month, from Musk—recall similar claims.
One out-of-state door knocker with HLA alleges their quota was to hit 200 doors per day in the burning sun—a difficult total to hit even under more bearable weather.
Several of the door knockers recount being confused over the exact nature of the subcontracting arrangements they had, but quickly began to realize it was all connected to the billionaire.
“This is, uh, it’s supposed to be on Hispanic leadership,” one of the door knockers tells WIRED, “but we [were] pushing for America PAC as well with Elon Musk. So it’s all the same thing.”
“We were technically employed by Liberty Staffing,” says the first door knocker, who has since left and shared their offer letter under Liberty’s letterhead. Like the door knocking unit in Michigan along with others across the country, these canvassers had to deal with the Campaign Sidekick app, the preferred mobile software for Musk’s get-out-the-vote effort.
Representatives for America PAC, Liberty Staffing Services, Hispanic Leadership Alliance, and an attorney for Musk did not return requests for comment.
However, the former door knocker claims, they were surprised to find an additional level of security in what they described as “physical auditors.”
They were told to expect to occasionally see someone driving by to make sure they were actually knocking on the doors and not, as has been previously reported by WIRED and other outlets, gaming the app to hit the quotas without having to wait around at the door.
The only noticeable difference between the various subcontractors and partners, it seems, comes down to the dress code.
An onboarding email obtained by WIRED shows the HLA canvassers have been required to wear shorts “no shorter than three fingers above the knee,” while the Liberty door knocker said they got some leeway.
After so many days in the heat and fully sweat-through shirts, it was time for an alternative.
“They gave us these America PAC shirts and little badges on lanyards, but they weren’t super strict about that,” the Liberty door knocker said. “I had only a couple shirts, they got dirty, and you don’t want to smell like shit on the job.”
You can follow all of WIRED’s 2024 presidential election coverage here.