Connect with us on Facebook!
Subscribe.
Make us your home page!
Authors, sign in!Obama's suggestion to host a Unite for Change event triggered my community organizing imagination. Though I'm not big on hosting an event like that for a bunch of people who are already sold on Obama, I am interested in encouraging more people to register and actually vote. I decided I would host the event for the young adults I know... many of whom will be first-time voters this election. I called on one of the college students who said she'd be interested to learn more about the process to help me organize.
To prepare for the event, I began looking up statistics.
As in many inner city communities across the nation, our wealthier and whiter northern part of the city votes at a higher percentage than our lower-income, highly minority southern sector. This is what I found:
- In northern Dallas, 31.61% (166,848) of all eligible voters show up to vote at the last presidential election
- In southern Dallas, only 18.77% (63,816) of all eligible voters showed up
What was even more sobering... and disturbing... was to find that my neighborhood, zipcode 75223, the turnout was much lower... only 8.51%. (source: www.analyzedallas.com) So, instead of creating a Unite for Change / Obama event, I contacted the Dallas County Elections Department to see if they would agree to educate and deputize everyone...
Possibly because of our former partnerships with them, they agreed to come out on a Saturday evening.
Tiffany and I began spreading the word.
Deputization party and bar-b-que... my house!
She sent out Facebook messages; I sent out emails and text messages. Several said they would come or at least try. I also decided to invite some of my friends who are active and engaged voters who truly believe in the political process in hopes of stimulating conversation.
Saturday evening, 18 people showed up. It was a wonderful mix of age, ethnicity, activism, and neighborhoods.
Most who came had voted at least once; however, a few were now convicted felons who are "on papers" and are not eligible to vote until they are off parole, but can help encourage others to register. Everyone came with the desire of gaining more information and understanding how they could help get out the vote amongst the people they connect with on a daily basis.
You never know what information someone will pick up and pass along. I like to call it the "ripple effect."
(Thanks to Dave Herman for some of the featured photos)
Published June 30, 2008 by Janet Morrison |
Permalink
| Tags:
Activism
Barack Obama
Community Organizing
Dallas
Grassroots Organizing
Inner City
Politics
Texas
Voter Registration
Voter Turnout
Comments (1)
If I thought I could smuggle some on the plane to the Convention, I would do that for you! :)
See, I'm from Missouri. I, too, love Texas BBQ, but I've never known how to do it like they do in Texas. So, the other great part of the deputization event was that a couple of my friends came over and bbq'd and showed me how to do it. You learn (and gain) so much by gathering people around backyard bbq!...except in Texas in June, it often gets taken back indoors because it's so HOT!
BTW...I still have a few leftovers if you still want to drive the 550 miles!
Posted by Janet Morrison
|
June 30, 2008 7:42 AM
Posted on June 30, 2008 07:42