New Voters, New Voices: Record Turnout a Triumph for Democracy, says Project Vote

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New Voters, New Voices: Record Turnout a Triumph for Democracy, says Project Vote

November 04, 2008

WASHINGTON, DC - With long lines seen across the country, all indications suggest that America's voters, as predicted, will shatter previous records and represent the diverse voices of the country's populace like no election in recent history. Project Vote, in partnership with the community organization ACORN, helped collect over 1.3 million voter registration applications this year, and has worked to protect the rights of low-income and minority voters to register, vote, and have their votes counted. Today Executive Director Michael Slater issued the following statement in response to this historic Election Day turnout:

"If one thing has become clear today it's that the face of the electorate has dramatically changed this year. The historic participation gaps among low-income, African-American, Latino, and young voters are closing, and Americans from all walks of life have become impassioned and empowered to take their place in the democratic process.

This is the truly powerful story of this election, a testament to, and triumph of, the American democratic system. Unfortunately, it is a story that has been at times intentionally and successfully drowned out by loud and powerful partisan voices. Those for whom this dramatic expansion of the electorate represents a threat have been working hard to erect barriers to participation, to paint new voters as a force to be feared, and to smear voter registration drives as a mechanism of fraud.

But today this long and contentious election cycle comes to a close. Long lines at polling places around the country demonstrate that the American voters refuse to be dissuaded, and most reports from the field so far are that few problems have emerged. After months of political debate and partisan scheming, the American people are demonstrating in dramatic fashion what it is really important to them: exercising the right to have a say in the decisions that affect them.

Who are the voters registered this year?

They are immigrants like Alonso Palomares of Phoenix, Arizona, who has lived in this country for 25 years but just became a U.S. citizen in February, and is excited to exercise his new rights and responsibilities.

They are new voters like Lynncoyia Bradley of Cincinnati, Ohio, who says she registered to vote with ACORN because of her nine-month old daughter. 'I want to be able to tell my daughter that I voted in the election in the year she was born,' she says. 'I am excited about the election and how the candidates are different.'

They are people like Sheila Jones from St. Louis, a 57-year-old black woman who never voted before she registered through Project Vote and ACORN's drive but feels newly empowered because she understands the resources she has available to her. 'All of the safeguards in place make me feel like my vote will be counted,' says Jones.

They and millions like them are making their voices heard today, and no one but the most cynical partisan operatives could argue that the empowerment of these and other underrepresented voters is anything but a triumph for our democracy. Shortly we will all know the results of this election, but the outcome is not the story. After the long road to this historic election, Project Vote celebrates with the rest of the nation our arrival, finally, at this common goal: an engaged and representative democracy in action."