Our Accomplishments

Work of the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition on Voter Registration, Education and Get-Out-the-Vote Efforts 2004 – Nov., 2004

I. Voter Registration

With nearly 700 volunteers working many hours we collected nearly 15,000 new voter registrations, changes of address or name – at supermarkets, health clinics, hunger centers, special community events, and clubs.

II. Voter Education

• We trained at least 500 people about how to register people correctly, about the new Help America Vote Act rules, the proper use of absentee ballot applications, the rights of Ohioans with criminal records, and the use of provisional ballots. The people we trained then went out to their respective organizations or social service agencies and trained others. The total number of people trained will never be known, but is clearly over 1,000.
• We held five public educational meetings. Three of these included elected officials.

  The first meeting was on April 23, 2004, on the issue of the risk to voters presented by electronic voting machines without a voter verifiable paper trail. Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, Ohio State Senator Teresa Fedor, and Bev Harris (author of Black Box Voting) were featured speakers. Other elected officials attended the event, which attracted about 150 people. Kaptur, Fedor, and Harris also attended an educational meeting at Mt. Sinai Baptist Church, involving a number of African American clergy and community activists, on the issue of electronic voting machine security.

  Coalition members were very active in the campaign to pass a law in Ohio mandating that all electronic voting machines must have a voter verifiable paper trail by November, 2006. This effectively prevented the introduction of such machines now by counties that were not already using them because these counties would have had to either retrofit such machines or discard them and purchase new ones to meet the requirements of the new law. Of 88 Ohio counties, 69 continued to use punch card machines in this election.

  The third public meeting was held on August 25, 2004. It was a meeting to educate the public about all aspects of voting. Speakers included Rev. Romal Tune, Molly Wieser of the Racial Fairness Project and Ohio Free the Vote (a group which registers people in jail and educates the community about the rights of people with criminal records), Atty. Todd Smith, who informed the audience about the new HAVA rules, Michael Vu, Director of the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, Judy Gallo, who presented information on registration issues and problems, and Jocelyn Travis, who presented information on the problems facing would-be new voters in Cleveland and ideas for solutions to these problems.

  The fourth public educational meeting was organized by the Faith-based Committee of the Coalition, and was held at the New Revival Baptist Church in late October. Between 600 and 700 people attended this event.

  The fifth public educational meeting, also organized by the Faith-based Committee, was held on the Sunday before Election Day at the House of God church. This meeting drew about 150 people.

• Instructional Literature For Voters
  

  The Coalition created a piece of instructional material for voters that is probably unique in the entire United States. It instructs voters on how to use the punch card voting system correctly, and has other ‘tips’ about how to vote and to make sure your vote counts. (A copy is enclosed.) The stimulus for creating this instructional flyer was research showing that the greatest number of errors in voting, and therefore votes never counted, occur in areas where income and educational levels are lowest.

  Unfortunately, lower income and educational levels correlate closely with minority population groups. Therefore, the Coalition targeted communities such as the east side of Cleveland and the Hispanic community on the west side for distribution of the instructional flyer on voting. We 'trialed' a draft of the flyer on homeless people in 2 shelters in Cleveland and the City Mission to be sure it was clear and helpful to new voters. We modified the flyer based on this experience, and mailed out a copy of the flyer to 10,000 new voters the Coalition had registered.

  We also obtained portable punch card voting machines and demonstration ballots and used them in 5 key areas to educate the public. The areas included: supermarkets, hunger centers, churches, health clinics, and special events involving youth ages 18 – 24. By the end of the week of Oct. 24 we had distributed by mail or by hand 40,000 copies of this flyer. We also translated the flyer into Spanish, and printed 10,000 for distribution in the Hispanic community.

  In addition, a research team led by Prof. Norman Robbins, who is a leader of CASE (Citizens Alliance for Secure Elections) and a volunteer with the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition, studied new registrations, and changes of address or name submitted to the Cuyahoga County Board to Elections by the Coalition. This research revealed how many votes would be lost (and therefore voters disenfranchised) due to errors by the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections, and how many would be lost due to voter error. (A copy of the full report is available upon request.) Robbins and others from the Coalition engaged in many efforts to rectify the situation.

• Outreach to Elected Officials
  We reached out to the Cleveland City Council members. We asked them to educate their constituents about when and how to register, and we provided them with written material to use in their wards. We provided them with copies of the instructional flyer about punch card voting and the voting ‘tips’ for use in their wards. Several thousand were distributed by council members and/or their precinct committee members.

III. Election Protection

The office of the Coalition acted as a recruiting center for volunteers to be poll monitors under the Election Protection program headed by Jocelyn Travis for People for the America Way. We sent out a wide appeal for such volunteers and set up a special phone line for volunteers. As volunteers called in, we informed them about training opportunities and forwarded their contact information to the Election Protection office. One volunteer circulated a flyer about poll monitoring at a major event where Michael Moore was speaking. Our volunteers attended the training sessions, helped distribute the Voter’s Bill of Rights, and were among the many volunteers at the polls on Election Day helping ‘trouble shoot’ and protect the vote. We also helped recruit attorneys and law students for the legal aspects of election protection.

On Tuesday, Oct. 26 we supported a rally and press conference called by Election Protection at the State Office Building in Cleveland to protest the Republican Party’s challenge of 35,000 registered voters, about 17,000 of whom live in Cuyahoga County. These challenges were nearly twice as frequent among African American voters as among others. According to an analysis by ACORN which was reported in the New York Times, 46% of the voters challenged in Cuyahoga County are African American, in a county where the population is about 27% African American.

We also recruited drivers to help the NAACP effort of driving people who need rides to the polls.

IV. Get-Out-The-Vote Activities

• A very successful GOTV meeting was held on Oct. 11 at the Laborers Local 310 hall, organized by Marcia McCoy and the Faith Based Committee of the Coalition. The event attracted over 150 people, the majority of whom are African Americans. Speakers at the kick-off included Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, County Commissioner Peter Lawson Jones, NAACP Cleveland Branch President George Forbes, Rev. E.T. Caviness, head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Atty. Vickey Beasley of People for the American Way, Marcia McCoy and others.
  
  
• Phonebanking: We reached 8,000 of the people we registered through the use of a predictive dialer phonebanking system operated by the Cleveland AFL- CIO Federation of Labor. Our message was a nonpartisan message about the importance of voting, with tips for how to make sure your vote counts and who to call if you have problems. We also set up a landline phone banking effort for young voters from several different nonpartisan groups. They reached 400 young voters, peer-to-peer, by phone and e-mailed another 100 newly registered young voters.
  
  
• Women’s March to Get-Out-The-Vote: On Monday, Nov. 1 we held a very spirited march by women - from the United Labor Agency to the Board of Elections (a few short blocks), focusing on the importance of the women’s vote. Everyone wore bright pink tee-shirts saying “United We Stand. Vote Nov. 2.” The name of the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition appears on the bottom of the shirts. We had signs and a huge pink banner with the same message. Some women brought their children to the event. We were joined at our press conference on the steps of the Board of Elections by Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones and by Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell. We got excellent media coverage, including the New York Times and Time Magazine.
  
  
• Youth GOTV Event: On Tuesday, Oct. 26, 6 non -partisan youth groups joined together to organize a “Party to the Polls” – a party with a purpose -- at Club Moda, a very popular club on Cleveland’s West Side, near the Hispanic community which attracts youth from all parts of town. The event featured a D.J., rappers, dancing, live entertainers, free appetizers, give-aways, and a chance to sign up for GOTV activities. The Coalition was key to making this event possible. Approximately 200 young people attended. Ten signed up to help with the phone banking the next weekend.

V. Election Day Activity

The Faith-based Committee of the Coalition held a Dine on Democracy dinner at a local church in the African American community, for everyone in the community served by that church who voted on Election Day. Approximately100 voters came out to the dinner.

VI. Publicity

Coalition spokespersons have been on television in the Cleveland area numerous times (at least 10). We have been interviewed by local, national and international radio, TV and press reporters and have met with delegations from a number of countries, including Japan, Italy, Canada, Argentina, South Africa, Taiwan, England, France and Spain. Indeed, we feel like the entire world was watching Ohio and Cuyahoga County in particular in the weeks before Election Day and on Election Day itself.

VII. Conclusion

All in all, we feel that our Coalition has done outstanding work, with an almost all-volunteer effort. We have learned a great deal about the state of the electoral system in the United States today, and about changes needed to strengthen democracy in America. Many of our volunteers are already talking about the need to continue our efforts after this election is over.

Report Prepared By Judy Gallo, Co-convener, Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition, for the Executive Committee of the Greater Cleveland Voter Registration Coalition
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