One of the core elements of democracy in the United States is voting. In 2004, as we do every four years, we will elect a President of the United States. Are you registered to vote? Are other family members, friends and neighbors registered?

The following article describes ways that we can get more people to register to vote, to actively determine who will make decisions about many, many things that directly affect us — transportation, housing, wages, discrimination policies, education and more.

One of the easiest and more effective activities a community group can engage in is encouraging people to register to vote. It can be an easy process — just ask everyone you know if they are registered to vote. If not, give them a voter registration form, get them to fill it out and make sure it gets to the voter registrar in your city, town or county.

Here are some tips:

• Smile, make eye contact and be enthusiastic.
• Tell the person why you are registering voters. (For example: “to hold politicians accountable.”).
• If a person is already registered, make sure that the voter registrar has their current address. Also make sure they know where they will vote on Election Day. Ask them if they will need a ride to the polls.
• Check the registration form for common mistakes: Can you read the writing? Is the form signed? Did they fill in all the sections?
• Ask everyone if they will help register other people.
• If they say, “No,” ask them why not. (1) If s/he is a convicted felon, inform them that they can get their voting rights restored by the Governor in order to register. (They can do so by contacting the Secretary of the Commonwealth, P.O. Box 2454, Richmond, VA 23201-2454.) (2) If they have another reason, talk to them about the importance of voting. If they refuse to register no matter what you say, as in the case of religious objections, thank them for their time and move on.

The NAACP offers these responses to common excuses:

• “I don’t have time.”
  Response: “That’s why we’re here. This will take less than a minute. What’s your last name?”
• “My vote doesn’t make a difference.”
  Response: “That’s why we’re here. A lot of people feel that way, but if we all voted we could make a difference. We’re going to register people and encourage them to vote so we can hold politicians accountable on Election Day. What’s your last name?”
• “My candidate always loses.”
  Response: “That’s why we’re here. So many people just didn’t vote in the last election. We’re going to register people and encourage them to vote so we can make a difference on Election Day. What’s your last name?”
• “No thanks. I’m already registered.”
  Response: “That’s great. But you may have been taken off the rolls. Have you changed your name or address since the last time you voted?”

Have fun with it. Hold a social event like a picnic or pizza party where people can register to vote and talk to each other at the same time. It’s also possible to set up a voter registration table at community events, after worship services, sporting events, etc. Radio stations love to broadcast live outside the grocery store where a voter registration table is set up!

Voter Registration Campaigns and Resources

• Your Vote Matters — Sponsored by Working Assets, this site links the user to on-line register in their specific state, allows them to send e-mails to groups of friends to help get them to register to vote, allows the user to sign up for volunteer voter registration efforts, and to sign up for e-mail alerts about events in their area.
• Take a Friend to Vote — a get out the vote campaign headed by the League of Women Voters.
• Young Voters 18to35 — a national, non-partisan organization dedicated to engaging young adults in public policymaking and moving their issues and concerns to the forefront of policy debates.
• Black Youth Vote — an initiative of The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Black Youth Vote is an intensive effort to empower African American youth through political education.
• Choose or Lose — MTV’s 2004 get out the vote effort, targeted to young people ages 18-30.
• Declare Yourself — a national non-partisan, non-profit campaign to energize and empower a new movement of young voters to participate in the 2004 presidential election. Declare Yourself will rally young Americans through a live spoken word and music tour of college campuses; an unprecedented nationwide voter education initiative for high school seniors; a massive voter registration drive; and a televised “get out the vote” concert, among other efforts.
• First Vote — a non-partisan, classroom-based voter registration, education and citizenship program for high school students sponsored by the Close Up Foundation.
• New Millennium Young Voters Project — an initiative of the National Association of Secretaries of State, this project operates a website geared to young people with information on how and where to vote.
• One Mind. One Vote. — a project of the Hip-Hop Summit Action Network, One Mind. One Vote. has initiatives aimed at engaging the Hip-Hop generation in community development issues related to equal access to high quality public education and literacy, freedom of speech, voter education, economic advancement and youth leadership development.
• Rock the Vote — engages youth in the political process by incorporating the entertainment community and youth culture into its activities. Rock the Vote’s media campaigns and street team activities work to increase youth voter turnout by coordinating voter registration drives, get-out-the-vote events and voter education efforts.
• Student Vote 2004 and Electoral Action Project — projects of the United States Student Association to get out the vote among young people.
• Virginia21 — an “action-tank” engaging Virginia’s young people in the political process on issues related to education, economic opportunity and quality of life.

Communities of Color

• Bringing Out The Vote — a project of the A. Philip Randolph Educational Fund, this program’s goal is to maximize registration and turnout in African American communities on election day. APRI chapters carry out education and mobilization activities in areas that historically have low voter registration or turnout.
• The National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, Inc. — dedicated to increasing African American participation in civil society.
• Southwest Voter Registration Education Project — committed to educating Latino communities across the Southwest about the democratic process, the importance of voter registration and voter participation. Its core mission is to politically empower Latinos by increasing civic engagement in the American electoral system.
• Voter Empowerment Program — a NAACP campaign designed to empower the African American community by increasing awareness and participation in the full political process in local, state and federal elections.

Disenfranchised Communities

• Arrive With Five — a non-partisan campaign by People for the American Way that encourages women, people of color, the elderly, and the disabled to make their voices heard by participating in elections. In addition to pledging to vote, program participants promise to “Arrive With Five” – that is, bring five friends or neighbors to the polls with them on Election Day.
• Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now — In the most recent election cycle, ACORN registered over 200,000 new voters, and made over 1 million non-partisan contacts to infrequent voters encouraging them to vote.
• Project Vote — Since 1982, Project Vote has registered and turned out to vote over 2.7 million low-income and minority citizens nationwide; won a dozen lawsuits to protect their right to vote; trained hundreds of low income, minority organizers; and provided registrants with non-partisan follow-up voter education.
• Voter Registration, Education and Mobilization — a project of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition that enlists community-based organizations, tenant organizations, low income housing providers, and other entities that interact regularly with low-income people to promote civic engagement.

Disabled Communities

• VOTE! Campaign — a non-partisan, statewide voter empowerment campaign of the Tennessee Disability Coalition; organizes the disability community to be an important force in the political and policy process.