Rock the Vote: NAACP encourages students to vote, vote early

Junior Latoya Johnson will cast her vote for democratic presidential hopeful John Kerry on Nov. 2, election day. Senior Tierney Billups said he will do the same because, in his opinion, Kerry is open minded and understanding. But Chuck Price, a senior business major, and junior John Collins believe otherwise. Price said he’ll cast his vote for President George W. Bush because he supports Bush’s policy on the economy. He also likes Bush’s strong stance on family values. Collins agrees, and believes Bush has done a lot for our country. Johnson, Billups, Price and Collins are a few of the many students who will vote during the upcoming presidential election, and their varied opinions reflect the closeness of the race between Bush and Kerry. This summer students Temika Dean, DeVine Brown, and Nebra Bess traveled to Boston for a Women’s Leadership Conference and attended the Democratic National Convention. Dean described the experience was phenomenal. She said the energy was high, and her initial decision to vote for Kerry was secured after attending the conference. She returned motivated to persuade minorities, especially women to get more involved in politics. Various student organizations are involved in registration drives. Kindra Givens, president of the campus chapter of the NAACP, is heading a movement to educate “all” students and through various means, including a door-to-door registration drive that was scheduled for Oct. 18. The WSSU Chapter has also named October “Voter Education Month.”  Givens and fellow members also scheduled a forum entitled “State of the Student,” and on Oct. 27 th the group will lead a march on campus in honor of the 50 th Anniversary of Brown vs. Board of Education. Linda Sutton, a member of the Winston-Salem Chapter of the NAACP, is working on getting the community more involved. She says the NAACP has been conducting voter registration most of the year and about 2,000 citizens have registered to vote. What’s more, she said the NAACP is distributing its legislative report card of how legislators are doing in the areas most important to the organization. Also, the group has been instrumental in getting the Board of Elections to place more early voting polls in the African-American community.  As part of its get out the vote strategy, the group also intends to do phone banking to encourage individuals to take advantage of to opportunity to vote early.