October 28, 2004

Activists make final push to get voters to polls

Members of Bye Bye Bush, front row, from left: Migiwa Orimo, Gretchen Pfaff, Sylvia Carter Denny and Ed Davis; back row: Tony Dallas, Susan Carpenter and Teri Schoch. On Election Day group members plan to disperse around town with signs to remind Yellow Springers to vote.

By Diane Chiddister

You wanted to vote on Election Day but your car broke down and you didn’t have a ride. Or you had to take care of the kids and just couldn’t get away. Or you meant to, but with your commute out of town to work and all, you just plain forgot.

But none of these explanations will make good excuses for local voters who don’t make it to the polls on Nov. 2.

Many Yellow Springers gave countless hours this fall registering voters for the election, and most agree that their work isn’t done until after polling places turn off the lights on Nov. 2. Until then, they’re busy knocking on doors, making phone calls and offering rides, child care and even visual reminders to help get out the vote.

“It’s always been really important” that people vote in a presidential election, said Teri Schoch, a member of the group Bye Bye Bush. “But this year there’s a great momentum. People are really concerned. There are still lots of people here who think it doesn’t matter, and we’ve been working hard to counter that kind of thinking because it does matter.”

While Yellow Springs likes to think of itself as politically active, the number of villagers who vote isn’t that high, Schoch said. In the last presidential election, about 69 percent of registered voters showed up at the polls, a number she is determined to change.

“It’s a high number for most communities but it’s not acceptable here,” she said. “Eighty percent would be acceptable.”

And, many agree, 100 percent would be best.

Toward that goal, some villagers have been beating the pavement all fall, first registering voters and then encouraging those voters to actually cast ballots.

Sylvia Carter Denny, along with many other villagers, including Ken Huber, Abby Cobb, Susan Carpenter, Eva Paige and Byron Dann, gathered more than 700 new voter registrations in Yellow Springs, Xenia and Springfield.

Since turning in the registration forms on Oct. 4, Carter Denny has been making phone calls to those she registered, which she sees as more than just reminders to vote. Rather, she aims to have deeper conversations that might address the obstacles that can stand in people’s way.

“Because I care so much about democracy I don’t want to just call up and ask them to vote,” she said. “Some are older people who haven’t voted for a long time or younger ones who never voted before. They’re fragile.”

Carter Denny also hopes to mobilize some of the new registered voters to reach out to others, and encourages each voter to take three others to the polls. She has also organized volunteers, including Mitzi Manny, Barbara Singleton, Jim Klein, Kay Kendall, Jewell Graham, Joan Edwards and Mary Chapman, to send handwritten notes to remind new voters to vote, and plans follow-up calls on Election Day.

“Getting people to the polls is what’s important right now,” Carter Denny said.

Viki Church had never worked in a presidential election before the 2004 race, but she and her husband, Ed Davis, care deeply about this year’s contest. After attending a meeting for the group MoveOn, the two found themselves as precinct captains for Yellow Springs. They now donate many hours per week working for MoveOn’s Leave No Voter Behind project, during which they knock on the doors of local voters who are identified as likely Democrats who might need a push to get to the polls.

With the help of 20 local volunteers, Church and Davis have visited about 200 homes, and they aren’t finished yet. They engage the residents in conversation but aren’t trying to change any minds, Church said. Rather, they encourage those they meet to get to the polls and offer any needed support, such as rides on Election Day. MoveOn specifically wants Leave No Voter Behind volunteers to work in their own communities, Church said.

“The idea is that if a neighbor comes to your house and says how important it is to vote, you’re likely to remember,” she said.

Her work on Leave No Voter Behind has given her hope, Church said.

“People want to talk. They’re so grateful to us that we’re out working,” she said. “There are people voting this time who haven’t voted in years.”

Those who want to vote but don’t have a ride to the polls can call Joan Chappelle at 767-7056 before Election Day or Jean or Hardy Ballantine at 767-7417 on Nov. 2. The three villagers are all members of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, which as a group decided to offer transportation on Election Day.

About 15 drivers will be available from 7 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. for those who live in Yellow Springs and Miami Township, Chappelle said, and those who need rides can request the time they prefer. Drivers agreed not to discuss partisan politics, Chappelle said, and they will offer rides to anyone, Republican or Democrat, who needs one.

Aware that young people often don’t vote, some villagers are trying to ease the way for at least one group: young mothers. Nancy and Charlie Peters plan to provide child care in Yellow Springs’ two polling places, the Bryan Community Center and the First Presbyterian Church.

While they have found some volunteers to provide the care, they could use more, and those interested should call Nancy Peters at 767-2155.

Activists have also come up with a creative response to the common post-Election Day refrain, “I forgot.” On Election Day members of the Bye Bye Bush group plan to post themselves, along with signs urging people to vote, at the main entry and exit points to the village, including U.S. 68 North and South and Dayton Street. The group hopes to jog the memories of those who commute to work outside of town, as well as anyone else traveling into and out of Yellow Springs.

The effort is one of several undertaken by the Bye Bye Bush group since it formed this summer at a house party following a nationwide conference call with Michael Moore, who discussed his film Fahrenheit 9/11. About 50 people were expected to attend the gathering, Schoch said, and 150 showed up instead. Since then, the group has initiated an array of pro-Kerry activities, including her idea to plant themselves on Yellow Springs streets on Election Day as visual reminders of the importance of voting.

Bye Bye Bush members contemplated just posting signs, which local artist Migiwa Orimo created, but they decided that drivers will pay more attention if the signs are held by actual human beings. So these Yellow Springers, along with many others, are finishing up the election season doing more of what they’ve done all along — walking their talk, giving their time, putting their bodies in action to support the values that they hold dear.