State-Journal.com - Registration group targets KSU, low-income residents

Photo By State Journal/Kelly Mackey

Max Thomas, left, and Neill Fox sit at a table in front of the Democratic Headquarters on St. Clair Street as they register people to vote.

By focusing on students at Kentucky State University and low-income residents, organizer Max Thomas says he's helped more than 1,000 register to vote.

"It's a labor of love," he told The State Journal.

The deadline is Monday and Thomas said he plans to continue canvassing door-to-door this weekend. However, Thomas is quick to share credit for the effort with his wife and 30 volunteers.

Franklin County Clerk Guy Zeigler said Thomas' team has been busy and is likely one of the largest efforts in recent years.

For the last six weeks, Thomas and the other volunteers have been going door-to-door on Holmes Street and Thorn Hill and have set up tables at Pic Pac, Wal-Mart and Save A Lot. They also register voters at high school football games.

Although Thomas supports Democratic presidential candidate Barrack Obama, the voter registration drive is a non-partisan effort, he said. Thomas said he doesn't ask voters if they are Republican or Democrat and accepts registration cards for either party.

"I have a sincere interest in getting everybody registered to vote " Republicans, Democrats and Independents," he said.

"Being a black African American, the right to vote is engrained in me. Everybody should use that right to vote."

Thompson, 53, is a retired state employee and said his team registered about 500 students at KSU during a weeklong effort on campus.

"The students are really involved this year, and they are wanting to vote," he said. "They just didn't know how to get registered."

Volunteers also registered several hundred low-income residents after targeting areas like Prince Hall and Holmes Street, Thomas said.

"People are really happy to see us," he said.

Many are eager to register because they are enthused about the presidential contest between Obama and Republican candidate John McCain, he said.

Thomas even took his table and forms to a family reunion in Shelbyville in August and registered 30 relatives.

"They were just so happy, they thought it was the best thing," he said.

Zeigler said voter registration has increased in the last few weeks and is on track to be above average.

Absentee voting also started last week and so far 31 have voted on a machine in Zeigler's office, he said. Zeigler has also received 191 absentee requests for paper ballots which is above average and will likely increase, he said.

Because the election is still five weeks away, Zeigler said it's difficult to predict turnout. Local voter turnout for the 2004 presidential election was 73 percent and Zeigler said it will probably be within the same range on Nov. 4.

52.	Posted by briangeier October 7, 2008
	freedom, i appreciate your resistance to unnecessary taxes. believe me, i think government should be a minimal project. again, i want to point to scale. you are talking about a tax system where the rich are taxed too much and the poor get an unfair share of the tax dollar. i can't really understand this point you are trying to make until you address the point i've put out there: namely, that our tax dollar is wasted on corporate welfare and war WAAAAY more than on welfare. you seem completely focused on where the taxes are coming from, since obama has a new tax system proposal. but we can't ignore where the taxes are going. (in fact, obama wants to put this online for us all to see.) there is this idea that obama's policies are class warfare. well, in my mind, the elite struck the first blow and the middle and lower classes have been up against the rope for a long time. more of us are slipping that climbing, so obviously if there's a class war, the elite is winning. it blows my mind when people in the middle and lower class pick up the ideology of the upper class, thinking that they will make up there one day. . . i think you have embraced an idea that the elite class wants the middle class to keep: that it is the poor people's fault that the middle class is on the verge of being taxed into poverty. the reality, however, is that you are being taxed to line the pockets of the rich, not welfare programs. people definitely abuse the welfare system, and all around us things are unfair. but until you get a grasp about the scale of things in this country and the world, i think these ideas that welfare programs are the cause of our problems are off-base.

51.	Posted by Freedom October 7, 2008
	I am with you Brian, I have liberal leanings in some areas. I just like getting Eddie going. Everything is not always black or white. Now nobody go off the deep end, I was not talking race. I believe we need to help citizens in time of need a hand up but not a hand out. So many have benefited from the redistribution of wealth through our tax system and have gone to become earners and achievers allowing them the opportunity to contribute to the redistribution fund. I have many liberal friends, their hearts are in the right place but they usually are asking for someone else to pay the cost. It is very easy to scream it is not fair. We are seeing the tax increases at alarming levels and I truly fear we are on the verge disaster. I am not rich by any stretch of the imagination but my position is and always will be-just because someone achieves and earns does not entitle someone the right to seize their earnings at a higher level in the name of fairness. I pay my taxes, I do not cheat on them, my conscience would eat me alive if I tried. Our political system has turned to a vote buying process on both parties. I just pray for my children and grand childrens future not mine. I have seen the best of American spirit and looks like I am getting the opportunity to see the worst before I die. Everyone have a great day and Eddie, please go see someone about your anger, we hope to see you on this website forever so you can lead us since we are so lost. Gotta Love IT.

48.	Posted by doesitreallymattereddie? October 7, 2008
	Your hypocracy that gets me and how you come off as a - "I know everything, you are a half-ling." And the fact that certain people are allowed to breed. "What is happening now is way outside of a recession" = you're out of baking soda again aren't you? Did you really just agree with me, then come back to disagree. So, while you say we are not in a recession, we've somehow miraculously entered into "depressionary pressure area." Amazing. "this is the definition of recession ___." No interpretation allowed. One answer. Semantics undebatable. THEN, change immediately in the same paragraph, "Ya' know, it might say they're rights, but my interpretation is really that they are privileges" and you use semantics. Thanks for acknowledging that there is no such thing as a 'Constitutional privilege' in your witty retort.

46.	Posted by doesitreallymattereddie? October 6, 2008
	Oh, he uses the general decline in 2 or more consecutive quarters of GDP definition. Gross Domestic Product = consumption + gross investment + government spending + (exports �� imports) What is crazy is that in a 'recession' or 'economic downturn' combined with a period of extended inflation, EXPORTS are increased dramatically. Regardless, a problem with using a mathematical equation to define a general consensus is obvious. More over, the numbers are ambiguous. It's not like there is a USA Government Balance Sheet and Income Statement where the numbers are reliable (not that they would be anyway.) ------------- Here is what the Constitution does say-eth. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. " 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution (1870) The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex. " 19th Amendment (1920) The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election . . . shall not be denied or abridged . . . by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax. " 24th Amendment (1964) The right of citizens of the United States, who are eighteen years of age or older, to vote, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of age. " 26th Amendment (1971) ---- So let us not forget, when you commit certain crimes, you do lose certain RIGHTS, i.e. bear arms or vote for convicted felons. You see, you have the right to make a fool of yourself, I get the priveldge to point it out.