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For Immediate Release
October, 06 2008, 08:15am EDT
Contact:
Sarah Massey, (202) 445-1169, sarah(at)massey-media.com Charles Jackson, (504) 994-4669, communications(at)acorn.org
ACORN & Project Vote to Announce Voter Registration Totals After Nation's Most Successful Voter Registration Campaign Concludes
Non-Partisan Groups Call for a Fair and Clean Election
WASHINGTON
In Monday, October 6th, 2008 at 11:00 AM (EDT), ACORN,
the nation's largest grassroots community organization of low- and
moderate-income people, and Project Vote, the leading technical
assistance and direct service provider to the civic participation
community, and will hold a media briefing to announce the results of
their history making voter registration drive. October 6 is the deadline for voter registration in most states in the country.
The two organizations undertook an aggressive voter registration
campaign in 16 states including Ohio, Florida, Michigan, New Mexico,
and Pennsylvania, to help close the historic gaps in the American
electorate that have misrepresented the true demographic breakdown of
the American population.
What: Press Call-In Briefing with Q&A
Who: Michael Slater, Executive Director of Project Vote; Bertha
Lewis, ACORN Interim Chief Organizer; Carmen Arias, ACORN Board Member;
Brian Mellor, Attorney for Project VoteWhen: Monday, October 6, 2008 at 11:00 AM EDT
Call-In Info: Dial 1-800-247-5110, Pass Code: 901734
Historically, the average voter has been older and wealthier than
the average American. With registration and voting rates of low-income
Americans, African-Americans, Latinos, and youths lagging significantly
behind other demographics, the new voters that Project Vote and ACORN
helped register came primarily from these historically disenfranchised
groups. Now their powerful new voices will be heard in the voting
booths, not just this year but for many years to come.
Project Vote will also announce its Registration Repair
program, an intensive and urgent effort to collect and rectify large
numbers of registrations that have been rejected by boards of election.
Bertha Lewis, Interim Chief Organizer of ACORN, Carmen Arias, an
ACORN Board member from Arizona, and Michael Slater, Executive Director
of Project Vote will be on hand to explain and answer questions about
this historic voter registration drive, and the work that is still
being done to ensure the rights and protect the votes of millions of
new voters this Election Day. And since history has shown that there is
a difference between submitting a voter registration application and
being allowed to cast a vote on Election Day, Project Vote Attorney
Brian Mellor will also describe urgent efforts to identify and assist
thousands of Americans who tried to register but were rejected,
removed, or fell through the cracks. The media is invited to
participate in this discussion of what ACORN and Project Vote have
done, and continue to do, to ensure that, this Election Day, every
American voice is heard, and every vote is counted.
ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is the nation's largest community organization of low- and moderate-income families, working together for social justice and stronger communities. Since 1970, ACORN has grown to more than 350,000 member families, organized in 850 neighborhood chapters in over 100 cities across the U.S. and in cities in Argentina, Peru, Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Canada.
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