Across Greensboro, non-profit groups are sharing one goal: to increase the number of people who vote in the upcoming 2011 Municipal Elections. WFDD’s Kathryn Mobley explains efforts by The Greensboro Voters' Alliance to get more people to the polls.
Lewis Beveridge is program coordinator at The Beloved Community Center, and he says it is essential for people to vote in local elections because the politicians and policies directly impact the daily lives of residents. The Beloved Community Center is one of more than 25 organizations united under the umbrella of The Greensboro Voters’ Alliance.
According to Beveridge, there are about 195,000 voters in the city of Greensboro. But he says in 2009, only 36,000 voted in the local elections. As a result, he says the city has poor leadership. Beveridge also complains nationally, the board of elections and the media have de-emphasized the importance of municipal elections by calling them ‘off- year’ elections. The Greensboro Primary is October 11th and the city's General Election is November 8th.
The Greensboro Voters’ Alliance is initiating a number of community-wide efforts to make sure people vote, including volunteers going door-to-door educating people on the impact their vote will make. Other volunteers will drive people to the poll,s and various organizations are holding voter registration events in the community.
Several towns in Forsyth County will also have municipal elections on November 8th. These will be non-partisan plurality, meaning whoever gets the most votes win. The communities are Kernersville, Lewisville, Clemmons, King, Tobaccoville, Bethania and Walkertown.
