Registering voters as deadline nears

By Anthony Man

From The Sun Sentinel

Democrats with clipboards station themselves outside the West Regional Courthouse in Plantation. The League of Women Voters is on hand as students line up to get into the cafeteria at Lynn University in Boca Raton. And Republicans seek conservative Christians at churches.

While the players are vastly different in motivation and outlook, they’re all after the same thing — getting South Floridians registered to vote for the November presidential election. With an Oct. 9 statewide deadline, political groups, government agencies and civic organizations are working overtime to get as many as they can.

“We are out there every day and night and every weekend,” said Susan Bucher, the Palm Beach County supervisor of elections. In addition to the efforts by Bucher and her staff, she said outside organizations are “bringing us hundreds and hundreds of applications every day.”

Broward currently has 1.1 million registred voters, which is 108,018 more than it had for the 2008 presidential election. Palm Beach County‘s 854,091 registered voter total is 22,668 higher than 2008.

Some registration efforts efforts span the political spectrum. Bucher and Joan Karp, president of the League of Women Voters of Palm Beach County, said they’ll go just about anywhere they’re asked if people want to host a voter registration efforts.

But people and groups that support President Barack Obama or Republican candidate Mitt Romney are much more selective. Ron Mills, campaign director for the Florida Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Democratic Caucus, said volunteers were assigned Sunday to each of the eight gay bars in Wilton Manors scheduled to participate in a “get out the vote bar crawl.”

Jack Gillies, a South Florida field organizer for Florida Family Action, which attracts many conservative Christians, said many of his efforts have concentrated on churches.

All registrars are required by law to sign up anyone who wants to register, but they don’t have to go to places where they’re likely to find new voters who disagree with their views.

“We, as Democrats, try to go to places that are Democratic friendly,” said Ken Evans, an area leader for the Broward Democratic Party. Richard DeNapoli, chairman of the Broward Republican Party, said the same is true on his side, which he said has been successful at gun shows. “Obviously we’re not going to go to highly Democratic areas,” he said.

So State Rep. Perry Thurston, D-Plantation, spearheaded a voter registration effort Saturday at the Lauderhill Mall, in a part of Broward County with many minority residents who overwhelmingly vote Democratic. Spots reminding people of the approaching registration deadline have been running on radio stations with many black listeners.

And, Thurston said, a final, big voter registration push is planned for the Sunday before the deadline at churches that draw lots of African-American congregants. He’s hoping that turns into votes for Obama.

Scott Spages expects many other South Florida churchgoers to support Romney. “I’ve seen more of a push for voter registration than anything I’ve ever seen before,” said Spages, a leader of the Faith Forum civic engagement project with members from Calvary Chapel’s Broward and Palm Beach County campuses. “I’ve seen countless mailers from Christian-based organizations and countless emails [that say] register, register, register,”

By far the biggest local player in voter registration efforts is the Obama campaign, which has been registering voters for months at public places and special events, and also sending out door-to-door canvassers. “Obama’s campaign is particularly active,” said Mary Cooney, director of public services at the Broward Supervisor of Elections Office.

Alan Ehrlich, a neighborhood team leader for the Obama campaign, said the site at the satellite courthouse in Plantation has been staffed from 10:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day for months. Some days, he said, 40 to 50 new registrations or address changes come in. Other days, especially when there’s lots of rain, the numbers of new voters signed up run in the single digits.

The president’s re-election campaign has registered 219,000 Florida voters in the 13 months that ended Aug. 31. Republicans registered 45,900.

The Obama effort stems largely from poltical necessity. Republicans tend to be steadier in their voting, both in presidential and non-presidential years. Democratic turnout goes up much more in presidential years. And big segments of the Democrats’ coalition come from groups such as young voters who tend to move often or may never registered to vote at all.

This year, polls show the vast majority of likely voters have made up their minds earlier than in previous presidential contests. Broward Democratic Chairman Mitch Ceasar said bringing in new voters — hopefully Democrats from his point of view — can increase the bottom line number. “We’re not just dealing with the 5 percent [undecided], but we’re adding to the field,” he said.

Dan Reynolds, president of the Broward AFL-CIO, and Pat Emmert, president of the Palm Beach County-Treasure Coast AFL-CIO, said new state rules governing voter registration efforts are so onerous that some groups have shifted their political focus away from voter registration. Republicans who control the Legislature and governor’s office changed the rules after the 2004 election, when officials reported some groups submitted voter registration forms too late or never.

Ironically, the only big voter registration problem that’s developed this year involved Republicans.

For the complete article click here.