10/16/04 story in Lafayette Advertiser......our group

[AnnInLa]

Thinking out of the (ballot) box
Two spearhead effort to bring voter registration to low-turnout neighborhoods
Claire Taylor
[e-mail]
October 16, 2004

Claudia B. Laws/The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Gobb Williams of Lafayette has worked with a group of volunteers to register more than 1,500 people in Lafayette Parish to vote. Next, the group of volunteers will take these small portable voting machines to community events to help teach first-time voters how the process works.
Gobb Williams and Richard Warren are committed to improving voter turnout for the Nov. 2 election.

The two spearheaded a two-month-long grassroots voter registration drive that placed easy-access voter registration posters and cards at churches, recreation centers, beauty parlors and neighborhood grocery stores.

Their efforts also sent as many as 18 volunteers at one time knocking on doors in precincts where voter turnout was low during the 2000 presidential election.

“We feel as though we might have registered door-to-door 1,000 to 1,500 people, which could effectively move the polls by 1 or 2 percent,” said Warren, a disabled veteran and member of the Progressive Democrats.

The men and their supporters aren’t stopping there. Voter registration for the Nov. 2 election has ended, but they continue to register voters for a possible Dec. 4 runoff. A sign on Williams’ car even invites people to stop him if they want to register.

“It’s my personal belief that, as a registered voter, you become ... the owner of every elected official. You can hold them accountable,” said Williams, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Lafayette Democratic Executive Committee. “If you don’t cast your vote, you can’t complain. Voting is our only voice, the voice of total empowerment.”

Claudia B. Laws/The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
Gobb Williams’ sport utility vehicle is decorated with signs volunteering to help anyone to register to vote. Williams has been flagged down on multiple occasions to register area voters, he said.
Williams, Warren and their helpers are planning workshops to acquaint first-time voters with voting machines and the voting process.

Volunteers will be manning a mock voting machine at the Okra Festival starting at 10 a.m. Sunday at Heymann Park on Orange Street, and invite new voters to stop by for a lesson. They’ll also be registering new voters of all party affiliations and races.

“Anybody is welcome. Our concern is for all people of the community, not just African-Americans,” Williams said.

Additional educational workshops are being planned prior to Nov. 2, probably in churches and possibly at the Clifton Chenier Center on West Willow Street, Williams said. No dates are available.

The final stage of the first-time voters push is, during the week prior to the election, to again knock on the doors of new registrants and remind them to vote, he said.

“The mere fact that you registered is irrelevant if you don’t vote,” Williams said. “We can register 20,000 people, but if they don’t vote, it’s all null and void.”

Fast facts:

* As of Thursday morning, 128,866 residents were registered to vote in Lafayette Parish.

* The deadline to register for a possible Dec. 4 runoff is Nov. 3.



SOURCE: Lafayette Parish Registrar of Voters Office

First time voting Nov. 2?

Get a quick lesson on a mock voting machine during the Okra Festival starting at 10 a.m. Sunday at Heymann Park on Orange Street in Lafayette.

©The Lafayette Daily Advertiser
October 16, 2004
News Headlines for Saturday, October 16, 2004
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[Joe Chi Minh]

1. Absolutely right - 2-way accountability - AnnInLA,

“It’s my personal belief that, as a registered voter, you become ... the owner of every elected official. You can hold them accountable,” said Williams, a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Lafayette Democratic Executive Committee. “If you don’t cast your vote, you can’t complain. Voting is our only voice, the voice of total empowerment.”

The second part of the point you make above is, of course, crucial. I just heard a young woman on CNN in Ohio, proudly vouchsafing that neither candidate was to her liking!

It is difficult to believe that people can be so naive as to think they are doing their candidate a favour by voting for him/her, rather than vice versa. Not, of course, that the candidates are likely to disabuse them of that fact, since they know the electoral importance of a "please the customer at all costs" mindset to the politician, because of this elementary misunderstanding about who will be the real beneficiary of their vote.