National Voter Registration Day: Encouraging Atlanta's Youth to Register and Vote

The Voter Empowerment Collaborative (VEC), through their Future Voters of American project, will observe National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday, September 23, by mounting an aggressive voter registration campaign. Voter registration will be going on throughout Metro Atlanta in an attempt to reach and register young people between the ages of 18 and 24. Activities will take place at Therrell High School, West Lake High School, Tri-Cities High School, Maynard Jackson High School, and more. Voter registration will take place simultaneously at each participating school during the lunch break at 11:00 a.m. through 1:00 p.m. Voter registration will also take place at the Mall West End from 10 a.m. through 7:00 p.m. and at Walmart at 5401 Fairington Road, Lithonia, GA from 10:00 a.m. through 4 p.m. Other schools and mall locations will be added throughout the week.

Atlanta-based organizations that support this collaborative effort of the National Voter Registration Day include Concerned Black Clergy, Fulton Atlanta Community Action Authority, Georgia Coalition for the Peoples Agenda, Simply United Together, Nine to Five, and the Urban League.

Participants and speakers for the occasion include Maynard Jackson III, who is no stranger to this community and the process of voting. Mr. Jackson assisted his father, the late Mayor of Atlanta, Maynard Jackson with the operation of the American Voters League, which Mayor Jackson founded in 2002. Albert E. Love, founder of the Voter Empowerment Collaborative, is often referred to by his colleagues at Mr. Voter Registration through his work with SCLC, the Concerned Black Clergy, and other organizations throughout this region.

“Without a doubt, my father wanted to make a difference in turning out the vote,” said Maynard III. “He revived the voters league because this was his legacy passed on to him through the actions of my great grandfather, John Wesley Dobbs (who co-founded the Atlanta Negro Voters League), and my grandfather, Reverend Maynard Jackson, Sr. (who co-founded the Progressive Voters League in Dallas). The record shows that we are a family of men, and women, dedicated to the right to vote and the process of voting. It’s in my blood line,” Jackson added.

Future Voters of America’s President Danny Milam, Jr., a junior at New Manchester High School in Douglasville, will accompany the voter registration team for the day. The Future Voters of America, a project of the Voter Empowerment Collaborative, is a youth centered, parent supported, organization designed to inspire, inform, and involve youngsters aged 7-17 in the voting process and to foster voter education, voting research and involvement among young adults ages18-22.

The reputation and the impact of the Voter Empowerment Collaborative continue to grow in Metropolitan Atlanta. Under the leadership of Reverend Love, the organization’s mission is to improve governance and the quality of life in Georgia and beyond by empowering voters through information, inspiration, and involvement to include research, voter registration, and voter education. VEC’s Board of Directors includes Reverend Tim McDonald, Bishop Aaron B. Lackey, and others. Reverend Love often comments about “donut communities” – referring to smaller cities that surround a major city. He says, “I believe that Ferguson (Missouri) happened indirectly because of a lack of voter education in this community that kept citizens from electing a mayor and city council who represented the interest of the growing minority population. We further believe that our voter registration and voter education drives in Atlanta’s donut communities will prevent another Ferguson experience from happening in this region,” said Reverend Love.
For more information about Voter Registration Day, visit http://www.nationalvoterregistrationday.org/