"State Rep. Larry Belcher, a Shepherdsville Democrat, was killed in a traffic accident Monday night.

The crash occurred a little after 6 p.m. CDT on Interstate 65 half a mile north of mile marker 43 in Edmonson County, a Kentucky State Police Trooper Todd Holder said. It appeared Belcher’s northbound white Ford F-150 pickup truck ran into the back of a tractor-trailer that had stopped for construction ahead, Holder said. Belcher was not wearing a seat belt and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The tractor-trailer driver, Mary Wasson of Texas, was not hurt, Holder said.

House Democratic Caucus Chairman Charlie Hoffman of Georgetown said he received word of the fatal crash shortly after 9 p.m. from a State Police officer on the scene of the accident.

“We just feel we have lost one of our family members and a very beloved and a compassionate person that everyone respected,” Hoffman said Monday night. “Larry Belcher was a very conscientious legislator who had a very level-headed approach to the legislative process.”

 
Larry Belcher was a co-sponsor of KFTC's Streamsaver bill in this past Legislative Session

John McCain and Barack Obama will meet for their second debate tonight (Tuesday, October 7^th at 9pm Eastern Time) at Belmont University.  In the spirit of the town hall meeting style, all questions will come from the audience (or internet), and not the moderator.

Take some time to watch the debate to help inform your vote.

Also, check out www.KentuckyElection.org, which has had some big additions in the last few days and will continue to grow, incorporating more and more races across the state.

www.KentuckyElection.org

Many things to many people, the Concert For The Commonwealth was the second annual UK KFTC Concert, the last event in the Lexington Operation Voter MADNESS, and the big kick-off event for KFTC allies at the Central Kentucky Council for Peace and Justice for their 20 Days of Peace and Justice celebration.  More than all that, though - it was a good time! 

Here are a few pictures taken by KFTC member  Jayne Powell.  Jerry Moody will have a video up for us soon as well.

Thanks again to our music talent for the evening, Devine Carama, Varsovia, and Groove Manifesto.  Check out their music - they're all big supporters of KFTC and voting and put on a great performance this past weekend. 

Today (Monday, October 6th) is the voter registration deadline.

If you're not registered, get down to your local County Clerk's office by the time they close today and register or download a mail-in voter registration card and get it post-marked today.

Operation Voter Madness concluded a few hours ago at 9pm yesterday, completing 83-hours of straight voter registration across the Commonwealth, resulting in over 1,000 voter registrations.

The Jefferson County team was the last to hand up their clipboards, rounding it out their three-day binge of Democracy in the Highlands and on Bardstown Road.

Thanks to the hundred or more members across the state that made Operation Voter Madness a success!  This moves us a long way towards our goal of identifying and contacting 15,000 voters three times each this election. 

We had some additional late media coverage on Channel 36 in Lexington, the Courier Journal and  Channel 11 in Louisville, as well at the Kentucky Kernel on UK's campus.

Below is coverage from the Channel 11 story. 

It’s crunch time.  And there is one last drive to get voters registered to head to the polls.

Amar Shah, from the group called Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, explained, “Our goal is to register as many people as possible.  Every single person we meet we want to convince them to register to vote if they haven’t already.”

Since August, the non-partisan group Kentuckians for the Commonwealth have been holding voter registration drives—they call it Voter Registration Madness.  Madness is right—since Thursday, they have been on an 83-hour binge of getting those cards filled out all across Kentucky.  And so far, it’s working.

Nore Ghibaudi, from the Jefferson Co. Clerk’s office, said, “We had a surprising number for the primary here in Jefferson County, and we have more than 90 percent of people registered to vote...”

For the full WHAS 11 News story and video, click here.

  
And here's a picture of our voter registration and outreach efforts at the Swappin' Meetn' in Harlan County this weekend.

Thanks again for everyone who made this weekend possible.  We might yet post some more pictures, stories, or even video of the weekend.  If you have stories about Operation Voter Madness, please send them in and we'll post them.

Saturday, October 4th at 5pm:

We're now 55 hours into Operation Voter MADNESS, our 83-hour voter registration marathon across the state.  Our members in Lexington and Louisville stayed up all hours of the night, including a crew of ten who canvassed downtown Lexington last night around midnight, and others who were out in force at 6am at the Lexington Transit Center.  We just finished out big Funky Farm festival in Lexington and the the Concert for The Commonwealth will cap off the Lexington events in a few hours.

Meanwhile, our Louisville crew still has a relentless schedule in front of them, with continuous voter registration until Sunday evening.  If you're in Louisville, come out and lend them a hand!

We have more stories and pictures to come, but here are some pictures taken this morning at the Lexington Farmer's Market. 

 As part of Operation Voter MADNESS, we have two Lexington music events today. 

Funky Farm

Noon to 6pm at Douglas Park (Georgetown St.), Lexington

Music by 107.9 and DJ Carl T.

Food, door prizes, candidates for public office, and a massive voter registration drive including 15 organizations.

For more information, contact Dr. George Moorman at 859-252-7385

The UK Concert afterwards is our 2nd Annual Concert for The Commonwealth at 7pm with Devine Carama, Varsovia, and Groove Manifesto.

Pictures from the Black Gold Festival in Perry County a while back.  We had a great time getting people to sign petitions, registering voters, and talking to people about KFTC and all the work that we do. 

1. Ashley and Tamara Sapp at the Black Gold Festival.

2. Randy Wilson, Diane Combs, Tracie Prater

3. Janice Hagans-Higgins and Archie

4. Lyle and Randy after they passed out info to people near the coal display

5. Truman and his granddaughter

              

 From the front page of the  Harland Daily Enterprise

Ashley Long (center), Harlan County’s voter empowerment organizer for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, helped Clara Smith fill out a voter registration card Wednesday in front of Save-A-Lot. Long and her sister, Kena Sizemore, set up a table to register voters and to collect signatures on a KFTC petition for tax reform in Kentucky. In order to be eligible to vote in the November election, voters must submit a registration card to the county clerk’s office by 4 p.m. Monday. Kentuckians for the Commonwealth will sponsor a voter registration table at the Swappin’ Meetin’ today and Saturday.

Voter Madness - a mental disorder characterized by abnormalities in political involvement. It manifests in odd requests for voter registration and an urging to participate, pursuant to the creation of true democracy.

We're about 32 hours into the main body of  Operation Voter Madness, a mad, 83-hour voter registration marathon ranging all over the state.  Just a quick selection of recent activities include:

- Harlan/Perry: KFTC Electoral Organizer Ashley Long and her sister-in-law were on the front page of the Harlan Daily Enterprise today, pictured in front of the Save-a-lot in Harlan registering voters and circulating our petition on tax reform.  We also had presentations today at Harland Independent Hightschool and Hazard Community College today.  This weekend, we'll also be conducting lots of petitioning and voter registration at the Swap-n-Meet in Cumberland (Harlan County) and at the Vicco Heritage Days (Perry County).

- Northern Kentucky - We registered voters at NKU this week for two days at the new student center and also at the 9th Districts schools Open House and at  the Carnegie Center in Northern Kentucky.

- Madison County - We'll be canvassing neighborhoods, meeting tomorrow (Saturday) at 10am at the Berea KFTC office and also registering voters and circulating petitions in front of the Berea Save-a-lot from 10am to 6pm.

- Rowan County - Lots of Voter registration work on Morehead's campus today, resulting in 30 new voter registrations.

- Lexington - We're 32 hours into our Operation Voter Madness here with a successful concert at Bluegrass Community Technical College yesterd day, and lots of successful events including getting 150 voter registration cards at UK this weekend, with about a dozen student volunteers canvassing campus and letting people know the deadline is close at-hand.  Tomorrow, we have two big events, including the Funky Farm festival in North Lexington at Douglas Park from 10am to 2pm.

- Louisville - The main body of Louisville's Operation Voter Madness started 11 hours ago at  7am and they're still trucking all over the city focusing on low-income neighborhoods.  Earlier this week, they spent a final two days registering students at UofL's campus.

We'll post more stories, pictures, and even some more video over the next 70 hours as Operation Voter MADNESS continues. 

Come on out and volunteer with us if you have a couple of hours.  It's fun work and we're getting an awful lot done.