While political candidates are using the waning days of the campaign to woo undecided voters, a group of get-out-the-vote advocates with ties to West Virginia University is reaching out to what it callsuntouched votersacross the state and region.
Such voters, WVU doctoral student and vote organizer M. Noelle Lee said, are those minority and low-income West Virginians, who, while being registered voters, are feeling disillusioned and disenfranchisedtheuntouched,Lee said.
And one big reason, she said, is because those citizens dont always have a way to get to the polls.
Enter Project Mountain Vote, orProject MoVote,as the operation has become popularly known. Project MoVote is a nonpartisan initiative of the West Virginia CitizensAction Group and Mountain State Education Research Fund.
The project, Lee said, is living up to its name. MoVote volunteers to date have registered more than 7,000 West Virginians for this election, Lee said, and most of those new voters are students, minorities and low-income residentsall of whom traditionally stay away from the polls on Election Day.
Every day leading up to the election, we are going into the subsidized housing communities and trailer parks,Lee said.Were making sure that voters know their precincts. Were making sure they know that we can offer them transportation to the polls on Nov. 2 and for the early voting days.
Thats a mission Lee knows a lot about. Last year, she founded WAAVE , the West Virginia African American Voting Electorate, for that very purpose. Her nonpartisan group has since gone on to host several candidate forums over the course of this election season.
Lee and other WAAVE members are helping coordinate the Morgantown operations of Project MoVote, which includes volunteers from other outreach groups in the city like Bartlett House, the Friendship Room and Morgantown Civil Rights Commission.
Project MoVote will make big move in Morgantown on Saturday (Oct. 30) for early voting in the city, in a family and civic-oriented day billed asCommunity Harvest Day.
Saturdays events
The day will run from 10:30 a.m.-3 p.m. at the Harvest Day headquarters, the Monongalia Arts Center, 107 High St. Van pickups will be available from designated neighborhoods, and Morgantowns semi-pro football team, the Wham!, will be on hand with free T-shirts.
At 11 a.m., adults will walk as a group to the nearby Senior Monongalians Center to register their early votes. A shuttle will be provided for those who prefer not to walk.
Their children, meanwhile, will stay at the Monongalia Arts Center for theKidsVote! KidsConvention,a sweet way to introduce them to the political process.
Its an election where candyreplaces candidates. The youngsters will cast votes for their favorite sweets representing parties and offices. Theyll make speeches on behalf of their favorites. Theyll cast their ballots on an actual, working voting machine from the Monongalia County ClerksOffice, then watch, as the numbers are tallied.
The afternoon will wrap up with refreshments and a free screening of the movie,The Wizat the Monongalia Arts Center. That event is sponsored by WVU s Center for 4-H and Youth, Family and Adult Development.
We just want to offer family-centered events that are fun and funky,Lee said.The idea is to encourage people to exercise their most fundamental right.
For more information on Community Harvest events or to arrange a ride to the polls on Saturday or Election Day, call WAAVE toll-free at 877-989-2283. The email is waave_wv@yahoo.com .