NAACP runs voter registration rallies

NAACP runs voter registration rallies

Johnson: ‘ We are very, very interested in getting people out to vote, because we know voting is the only way to bring change’

news@theeveningtimes.com

Maybe you missed it, but Monday, Sept. 17, was Constitution Day. The Constitution turned 231 years old last week.

Abraham Lincoln said of the nation’s founding document, ”Don’t Interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties.”

The day was not lost on the Crittenden County NAACP or the Delta Sigma Theta sorority as the groups teamed up to conduct voter registration for seniors at local high schools and with students at ASU-Mid South.

Rubye Johnson reported the effort at the September CCNAACP meeting. Voter registration remains open through Oct. 8.

It’s important to register to vote, and last week we did Earle and Marion,” said Unit President Shabaka Afrika. “Today we did the college and the Academies of West Memphis.”

Ruby Johnson brought the two organizations together for the effort. She is a local leader in both the sorority and the county NAACP.

“We are very, very interested in getting people out to vote, because we know voting is the only way to bring change,” said Johnson.

Johnson, a retired educator, assessed voting awareness among students eligible to vote for the first time in the mid-term election. West Memphis will have a new Mayor for the first time since 1999. The opportunity to vote in the county’s largest city election will bring in change under a new regime.

“A lot of the young people have not been taught,” said Johnson, “because we know voter participation here and in Crittenden County and in West Memphis is very low. We want to make sure turnout is higher so we are going around talking to young people and telling them things they did not even know.”

Voter eligible students remained in the dark. Johnson said civic awareness just isn’t what it once was.

“That’s amazing to me,” said Johnson. “I’m an educator and I used to do mock elections in elementary school. They would know everybody running for office in the state and everybody running in West Memphis. And many students can’t even name one, and that bothers me.”

Johnson shared how the voter registration drive took shape. The opportunity to approach students was different on each campus.

“We talked to all three superintendents, and made contact at the college,” said Johnson. “We asked them to do this and said Constitution Day is today. We thought it would be a good activity. In Marion as all the seniors came out from being fitted for caps and gowns, we talked to them.

They were very gracious to us in Earle and brought all the seniors into the cafeteria for us. Today they let them come from the 12th grade English classes to the library at the Academies of West Memphis. At the college, Miss Hogan was over Constitution Day and students sat right there in the rotunda and we were allowed to make the presentation.”

The groups created ads in advance for local cable access

TV. Some of the registrants were new comers to the area.

“We had people that had just moved from other places to here,” said Johnson.

In all, Johnson estimated the effort signed up 70 new voters.

Voter registration is available at the county court house through the second Monday in October. Early voting begins the last week in October with the general election on Tuesday, Nov.

6.

By John Rech