ARCHIVES OF LEAD STORIES
July 28, 2005
New coalition plans thorough voter turnout drive in Roxbury
Jeremy Schwab
Voters in Roxbury flexed their political muscle
last fall when they helped return Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea
Cabral to office, turning out in numbers that rivaled those of
Jamaica Plain, South Boston and West Roxbury.
This fall, Roxbury activists hope to maintain the momentum by
building on voter mobilization efforts of past years.
Members of 22 Roxbury neighborhood associations, tenant groups,
community development corporations and other community organizations
recently formed the nonprofit RoxVOTE to conduct a strategic voter
mobilization drive for this fall’s city council and mayoral
elections.
RoxVOTE organizers aim to increase voter turnout in Roxbury by
at least 10 percent over 2001, the year of the last mayoral election.
The coalition plans to mobilize voters in every corner of Roxbury,
from Grove Hall to Lower Roxbury to Jackson Square.
Their plan calls for different member organizations to go door-to-door
in specific precincts, to provide coordinated coverage of all
of Roxbury. The coalition also plans to conduct phone banking
to mobilize voters as Election Day approaches.
But will voters turn out in high numbers, given that there are
no black candidates for mayor, no black candidates for at-large
city councilor who are considered viable and no challengers for
the seat occupied by District 7 City Councilor Chuck Turner?
Whether black challengers are running or not, the community needs
to turn out in large numbers, according to Celia Grant, RoxVOTE’s
campaign field director.
“There are several at-large seats up for grabs now, and
to me it is not about color,” said Grant, who is a staff
member at Madison Park Development Corporation, the group which
came up with the idea for RoxVOTE. “The fact of the matter
is these people are running and we need to get to know them in
a hurry so we are not upset with some of the decisions they make.”
RoxVOTE holds its campaign kickoff celebration at 6 p.m. today
at Hibernian Hall in Dudley Square. Attendees will be encouraged
to register to vote, enjoy live entertainment, volunteer for RoxVOTE’s
campaign and fill out a list of their public policy priorities.
The policy priorities will be gathered into a “community
scorecard” which RoxVOTE plans to present to candidates,
asking them to take positions on the issues.
The coalition is planning two evenings when potential voters can
meet candidates at Roxbury Community College. The first evening,
scheduled for September 7, will feature candidates for at-large
city council, say organizers.
RoxVOTE organizers say they will soon unveil their website, www.roxvote.org,
where residents can find information on political races in their
districts, candidates’ positions, voter registration and
election dates and into what district their address falls.
RoxVOTE organizers say they aim to learn from whatever mistakes
and successes they have in this year’s campaign and incorporate
that knowledge into improving their approach for future get-out-the-vote
efforts.
High voter turnout is the key to getting the services and attention
that the neighborhood needs, say coalition members.
“The elected officials look at who is voting,” said
Jose Barros, a community organizer at DSNI who has been sitting
in on RoxVOTE meetings. “They respect the communities who
vote, because they know if they come in people can vote them out
if they are not doing their job.”
In previous years, groups such as Dunk the Vote and the Dudley
Street Neighborhood Initiative have conducted voter registration
and mobilization drives. But there was no central organization
coordinating their efforts.
Thus, pockets of Roxbury saw more voter outreach while other areas
saw less.
“Dudley Square has a lot of organizations, so it’s
already saturated with organizations doing that kind of work,”
said Grant. “In other parts of Roxbury, residents don’t
always get the kind of blast with people reminding them to vote.
It depends often on how strong your neighborhood association is
and whether they are involved in registering people to vote.”
Back
to Lead Story Archives
Home
Page
