Area groups work hard to make voter registration easy

It's easy, it's free; yet so many Americans take voting for granted.

The right to vote is what decides issues and turns the course of history. Hoping to help chart that course, several political groups held voter registration drives in Cape Girardeau recently, and some organizations are planning future drives.

The deadline has passed to register to vote in the August primary election. The deadline to register to vote in the November general election is Oct. 6.

Like other organizations who register voters, the Coalition for Peace and Justice registers people to vote at every opportunity. Robert Polack, a professor at Southeast Missouri State University, said the group that now meets regularly at his home began informally two years ago to protest the war in Iraq. Since then, its membership has targeted what it calls Democrat areas in the city and has so far registered 300 voters, mostly by going door-to-door.

The coalition met at Indian Park Saturday afternoon to prepare for another neighborhood canvass to distribute fliers for some candidates and register more voters.

"We're about as grassroots as you can get," Polack said.

Gun shows and fairsSupporters of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq could be found at the gun show held this weekend at the Arena Building. Volunteers for the Bush-Cheney campaign set up a booth at the gun show to catch any unregistered voters or to assist them in changing their address or whatever was needed to make sure any visitor's registration is current.

"Being a Republican and pro-Second Amendment, if I were going to do something like that, it would be one of the places I would do it," said Leonard Sander, Jr., of Jackson, chairman of the Cape Girardeau County Republican Central Committee.

A spokesman for the Bush-Cheney campaign said that voter registration will be available at most places Republicans and supporters of private property rights can be found: gun shows, NRA banquets as well as at fairs.

Political parties and activist organizations will be in evidence where crowds gather. The Republicans, Democrats, Libertarians, the Coalition for Peace and Justice and the League of Women Voters all plan to have voter registration booths at the SEMO District Fair, and most will be at Homecomers in Jackson. Any other voter registration drives between now and November have not been finalized, although most say they will probably have some kind of drive.

"We register people every chance we get," said Simon Ebenstein, chairman of the Cape Girardeau County Democratic Central Committee. "We can always get people to help anyone who wants to register to vote. It's the only right we have in America. It isn't a right everywhere in the world."

It's a right Americans don't always exercise. Sander recalled the dismay of a colleague on the state Republican committee who discovered her brother-in-law was not registered.

"A lot of people just don't take the time," Sander said.

Martha Vandivort of the League of Women Voters said setting up tables and locations to register voters can be frustrating and unproductive.

"People seem to miss them unless you get right in front of them and almost trip them," she said.

That is not to say that all people don't care about their right to vote. They have the opportunity to register at so many places other than the county clerk's office or at a table in front of a store. According to the secretary of state's Web site, voters can register by mail, although online registration is not offered.

Missourians can register to vote at the license bureau when they renew their license plates or their driver's license. Voter registration is available at public libraries, state agencies and military recruiting offices.

All potential voters need is to be able to prove they are at least 18 and a citizen of the United States. Voters will remain registered and eligible to vote unless they change their address.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

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