LYNN – Airony Santana lost her job because her infant daughter was sick, which forced her to call in sick to work but her job didn’t offer sick time.”I worked for a gas station a few years back,” she said. “It was a third shift job ? when I showed up for my 3-11 shift the next day they told me I was fired for not coming to work the day before.”It is that experience that fuels Santana and her efforts with the Essex County Community Organization’s (ECCO) get out the vote drive for ballot Question 4. A yes vote on Question 4 will entitle all employees across the state to earn and use sick time. It is one of four questions on the Nov. 4 ballot.Clergy and community leaders affiliated with ECCO have been meeting twice a week at St. Stephen’s for the last two months, explained Alexandra Pineros-Shields, an immigrant organizer for the organization. On Wednesday about a dozen volunteers gathered at St. Stephen’s, picked up instructions, clipboards, maps and hit the street to knock on doors of registered voters and urge them to vote yes on Question 4.According to ECCO Executive Director Daniel Lesser, 36 percent of the state’s population does not have earned sick time.”Fifty-two percent of service workers don’t have it, and 48 percent of Latinos don’t have it,” added Pineros-Shields.Sarah Van Gulden, assistant rector at St. Stephen’s, who walked part of Ward 6 with Sally Gosselin, said she thinks what moves people of faith to help is the idea that God created bodies all essentially alike.”But they don’t last forever, they break down more than many would like them to, and we need help to fix them,” she said. “Too many people are making the choice, ?Do I go to work or do I stay home and take care of myself or my family?'”Pineros-Shields said they have heard some heartbreaking stories while door-knocking.While walking Moulton Street with another volunteer, Debbie Potter, Pineros-Shields talked about a man she met recently who owed back rent, had a family and couldn’t afford to lose his job. His mother was in the hospital and he got a call from the doctors telling him to come now, she’s dying, Pineros-Shields said.”His boss said, ?You can go, but I’m not paying you for the whole shift,'” she said. “He waited, but by the time he got to the hospital, she had died. It just broke my heart.”Pineros-Shields and Potter rang bells and talked to residents along Moulton Street while Pineros-Shields’ 8-year-old daughter tagged along.Pineros-Shields spoke Spanish to one woman, who said she cannot vote because she only has a green card, but she will tell her husband, who is a citizen, to vote yes. She does not have sick time, Pineros-Shields translated.Floralba Gonzalez listened carefully to Pineros-Shields’ speech.”That’s what I need,” she said quickly while signing a pledge card. “I don’t get it now. If I call in sick, I could get written up, and I don’t get paid.”Deborah Boggs, who works in Lynn, lives in Swampscott and is affiliated with the Unitarian Universialist Church of Greater Lynn, said she is surprised by the warm reception they have all received out on the street and at how accepting people are of the issue.”People are moved by the economic injustice argument, but there is also a public health aspect,” she said.A fast food worker goes to work sick because he or she has no choice, and they handle food and the public, potentially passing their illness on to hundreds, Boggs said.Wednesday was just one night in the effort to reach 8,000 infrequent voters across the North Shore before the Nov. 4 election. Lesser said there are similar movements taking place in Beverly, Gloucester and Salem.Santana said she has been surprised by how many people don’t realize the question is on the ballot.”Which just motivates me more,” she said. “Go out and vote. Tell everyone you know and help us spread the word.”