By Rick Garcia
As the colorful leaves have fallen, consequentially, colorful candidate signs have risen in its place dotting the neighborhood landscape. Additionally, you may find yourself raking through the “plethora” of candidate and proposal mailers while rifling through the TV campaign ads with the remote choosing “Spongebob Squarepants” as an alternate refuge.
To cap out the day you might find political bytes peppered all over your emails, social media networks and even at your favorite caffeine “hovel.”
Yet, in our wonderful democracy we rank only 19th in the Democratic world in voter turnout with Australia leading with over 95%, while the United States hover at 53%. In some parts of the world, people risk their lives to cast a ballot. Once upon a time our country has done this.
Today, we see a different movement on how we engage, whether one is disillusioned or not about the State of our State voting.
As nonprofits, we are proud to partner with Michigan Nonprofit Association and the Michigan Participation Project www.michiganparticipationproject.org where we provide nonpartisan voter engagement resources to our community. Nonprofits have the ability and assets to be strong civic custodians to encourage voter participation regardless of party lines. The goal is to engage, educate and encourage voting as a nonpartisan in its electoral engagement activities for nonprofits, bound by law and have inherent assets making them strong civic intermediaries.
The purpose of the project is to find out those we have contacted about voter registration or voting in the 2012 election do end up voting. The tracking can also help with follow up on those contacted earlier in the election cycle with vote reminders or other election information.
Regardless of party affiliation or views of present issues, voter engagement is seen everywhere from media, door-to-door and on every social setting. The challenge most voters face is knowing where and how to access the information and taking the time from our busy lives to make it meaningful.
Your vote is your voice and you should exercise that right. It is a pivotal moment for our country and our local communities for residents to be heard not only in this presidential electionyear, but for the U.S. Senate, congressional, state House and local government races and the so ever-talked about six state proposals.
To check their registration status, voters should visit www.lwv.publius.org This is a quick and easy project thanks to the collaborative efforts of The Michigan League of Women Voters and Publius.org, a non-partisan, non-profit 501(c)(3) organization that provide the impact of the Internet on democracy and web-based tools to enhance the exchange of ideas and information.
Publius began by consolidating election-related web sites to make it easier for voters to find the election information they need. Residents also will be able to find information on voting by absentee ballot, using voting equipment and contacting their local clerk. They can also find a map to their local polling place. If you do not have access to a computer, please visit your local
library.
Registered Michigan voters who have moved within 60 days of the election may still vote at their previous address if they did not register to vote at their new address by the close of registration for this election. This also applies to voters whose homes have been foreclosed upon. Voters in default on their mortgages but living in their homes may still vote without restriction.
As part of our “Track the Vote 2012” efforts, we conducted a meaningful series of events and programs that will motivate and inform registered voters in Eaton County by hosting a series of “Meet the Candidates” forums throughout Eaton County. We opened a “Drop-in” Voter Engagement Site at the Eaton County United Way office in Charlotte during the election season.
We also worked collaboratively with civic and municipalities in delivering the message strategies on voting; and advocate voting through traditional and social media.
We have also partnered with Nonprofit VOTE, a national nonprofit founded in 2005 to help nonprofits help the people they serve participate and vote. Nonprofit VOTE is the leading source of nonpartisan resources to help nonprofits integrate voter engagement into their ongoing activities and service to track those who vote in the 2012 election do end up voting.
Finally, as you see “LIVE UNITED” message in your community, it is part of our creed GIVE.
ADVOCATE. VOLUNTEER. Advocate, in this unique case, means to take action and make a difference
in your community by voting.
This was printed in the November 4, 2012 – November 17, 2012 Edition
