Steve's Blog

last registration weekend

We just finished our last registration effort in Missouri, in KC and Sedalia. We got 52 more voters signed up. It has been a hard, long effort here, but very rewarding as well. Now on to get out the vote efforts.

It's a long road til 11/2

It's been a long haul, and we have two more weekends before we reach the deadline to register voters in Missouri. Then we can take a few days off, and tool up for the get out the vote effort. The polls are showing Missouri swinging to the right, but the polls are not accurate! The level of grass roots effort in Missouri is overwhelming, and if we keep up the effort until November 2, Kerry will win, and Bush will be sent packing.

Marge Murray on 7/25

Sunday July 25th in KC

We registered 34 voters today, and 20 yesterday--54 for this weekend. It was a beautiful day today, not too hot, and there were many people on the street. Yesterday our heroes were Dick and Phil from Herrington KS, who worked in the pouring rain (fortunately they were under shelter). We are on track to go every week now, and our volunteer base is enlarging each week.

We now go to Kansas City every week. Some days are slow going, and others are better. What is extremely cool is that we are picking up new volunteers every week, and had six new people last Saturday. We have registered several hundred voters, and at the rate we are going, we will accumulate a large number by the time the deadline occurs. Then we will turn our attention to going to KCMO on election day to drive people to the polls.

If anyone wants to get involved in Kansas Driving votes, please email me.
best,
Steve

Kansas Driving Votes

Yesterday 7 of us registered 52 voters in Kansas City Missouri in about four hours. There were some very slow periods, and then things would pick up suddenly. One of our group had to leave, and went into Starbucks for a coffee; suddenly she stuck her head out of the door and motioned me to come in. We then registered both baristas!

We now go to KC almost every week, and we are building up some momentum: new volunteers are joining us every week! This is exciting!

An Afternoon In Kansas City Missouri

Five of us went to Acorn's KCMO office for training with Anthony Jones. Then we went to Walmart. Two hours later we had a total of 30 voters registered. We will be going back as often as we can between now and the October deadline. A great day!

May 25 Meeting in KCMO

Three members of Kansas Driving Votes attended the monthly America Votes meeting in Kansas City. There were some 15--20 others there, representing a wide range of groups deeply committed to voter registration to defeat Bush in November. Acorn, ACT, America Votes, Democracy for America, and a number of labor unions (Communication Workers of America, Service Employees International Union, and the United Steelworkers of America) were there. Particularly impressive to me was the representative from the Steelworkers, who was there directly because of driving votes (we made contact with them through a friend, and they sent a staffer to the America Votes Meeting). The steelworkers (500,000 workers nationwide in a range of occupations, not just steel) are totally dedicated to defeating Bush, and are making the election their top priority. In fact, the staffer told me that they have been told not to plan any vacations between September and the Election. It was good to see so many folks from so many places coming together. Yet meetings to me are not the answer: from here on out, we will concentrate on registering voters in KC as often as we can get people there. Acorn will do a training for us this Saturday, and away we will go!

Going to KCMO 5/25

Three members of Kansas Driving Votes will meet in Kansas City Missouri with representatives of all the major voter registration organizations on Tuesday 5/25, and then meet with the Missouri Director of America Votes. The contacts we make Tuesday will be helpful in planning our on-going trips into Kansas City. I am hoping to organize weekly voter registration trips into Missouri--it is great having a swing state so close by (40 minutes).

Kansans go to Missouri

We are organizing in Kansas! Our first trip to Kansas City Missouri is Saturday May 8th, where we will join in the Americans Coming Together for their national election day action: at 10 am
Service Employees International Union Local 96
4526 Paseo
Kansas City MO
We are also going to have a drivingvotes meeting in Lawrence, and then start regular trips into KC to register voters. Things are happening!!!

Back from Spain

I'm back from several weeks in Spain, and raring to go to Missouri and register voters. I will be gathering a group soon to plan our first foray into the Kansas City area, where we will probably volunteer with the local ACT group.