It’s Not About Cards, It’s about People

Today ACORN and allied groups held a press conference to officially launch their voter registration drive for 2008.  Joining ACORN at the event were representatives of Campaign Against Violence, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Urban Underground and Voces de la Frontera.  The general goal is to greatly increase the participation of low-income and minority residents in the upcoming elections in 2008. 

The room was filled with representatives of organizations, other activists, canvassers and members of the media.  The media was represented by radio stations WHAD and WUWM, while channels 58 and 12 were the television stations in attendance.

Today ACORN and allied groups held a press conference to officially launch their voter registration drive for 2008.  Joining ACORN at the event were representatives of Campaign Against Violence, Citizen Action of Wisconsin, Urban Underground and Voces de la Frontera.  The general goal is to greatly increase the participation of low-income and minority residents in the upcoming elections in 2008. 

The room was filled with representatives of organizations, other activists, canvassers and members of the media.  The media was represented by radio stations WHAD and WUWM, while channels 58 and 12 were the television stations in attendance.

ACORN statewide political director, Carolyn Castore first came to the podium to begin the event.  She explained that in 2004, many people did good work in registering people to vote, but that different groups were practically tripping over each other to reach them.    She stressed that the goal was to reach even more people by working more closely together and by being better organized and strategic.  She also announced that since December, they have already registered some 4,733 people.  They surpassed their own goals for this time period even with the recently challenging weather. 

Castore reported that 55 percent of the people that they registered in 2004 actually went out and exercised their right to vote.  She said that she welcomed most of the new rules surrounding voter registration because they are not just trying to produce cards but accurate and valued registration.  Further, the ultimate goal is not about the number of cards but the number of people reached.  She also explained that the City of Milwaukee now requires training to register people to vote.   All of their canvassers have been through this training and ACORN has gone above and beyond requirements by also keeping open lines of communication with city officials.   

Others speaking at the press conference were ACORN Political Organizer George Moody, Theresa Thomas Boyd from Citizen Action of Wisconsin, and canvasser Edward Williams. 

UPDATE:  Milwaukee’s Channel 12 News did a story on the event, you can VIEW IT HERE.

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