Here are  five videos taken by Jerry Moody during Lexington's Operation Voter Madness this past weekend.  Enjoy. 

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. 

 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.

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.

83 Hour, Non-Stop Voter Registration Marathon! - Join the fun

 
As part of a year-long push to register voters in under-represented areas (low-income, people of color, and youth communities), Kentuckians For The has again put together Operation Voter MADNESS – an all-out 83-hour marathon of non-stop voter registration ranging all over Lexington and Louisville, and including substantial efforts in Rowan, Warren, Madison, Knott, Perry, Pike, Harlan, Floyd, and Letcher Counties.

This last push caps off an effort including hundreds of events by KFTC to register voters throughout the year.

The deadline to register to vote is Monday, October 6th.  Cards must be postmarked or turned in to your local county clerk on this day or earlier to register for the November 4th General Election.

In all, we plan to contact 15,000 voters three times each this election cycle, making sure they're registered to vote, that they have non-partisan information about candidates, and that they have every opportunity to get out and vote!

New volunteers are welcome at these events!

Lexington Operation Voter Madness Schedule

Thursday 10/2
10am-2pm - BCTC - Voting is Patriotic Concert
2pm-5pm - Lexington Public Library Northside Branch
5pm-10pm - Save-a-lot (and other grocery stores)
10pm-2am - Bars (bar complex - free/mias/mccarthys, als, A1A).  The central location will be a table at the corner of Limestone and Short street.

Friday 10/3
2am-6am - Tolly Ho, plus other late-night restaurants
6am-10am – Lexington transit center
10am-2pm - UK Campus outside near the Journalism Building
2pm-6pm - Woodland Park 2pm-6pm
6pm-10pm- Southland Bowling Alley
10pm-2am Outside of the Kentucky Theatre

Saturday 10/4
2am-6am - Tolly Ho, plus other late-night restaurants
6am-9am - Lexington Transit Center
9am-2pm - Lexington Farmers Market
2pm-6pm - Funky Farm at Douglas Park
6pm-10pm - Concert For The Commonwealth at the UK Student Center Patio

Louisville Operation Voter Madness Schedule

Friday 10/3

7am-9am - KFTC office, Butchertown, and the Marathon gas station
9am-11am - Phoenix Hill, St. John's
11am-3pm - Presbyterian Community Center, grocery store, fast food,businesses, sidewalks, Shepherd's Square
3pm-7pm - Jackson and St. Catherine: St. Vincent dePaul Homeless Shelter,St. Jude's, Jackson
Woods Housing
7pm-8pm - Gas stations
8pm-11pm - Midcity mall and Bardstown Road
11-12am - White Castle at Preston and Eastern

Saturday 10/4

12am-3am - White Castle
3am-7am - Denny's decompression and some registration
7am-3pm - Shelby Park tabling event, Meyzeek Farmer's Market
3pm-5pm - Old Louisville around Hill (Old Louisville Coffee, etc)
5pm-7pm - Park Hill and Parkland
*3pm-7pm CONCURRENTLY Table in 4th Street Borders
7pm-9pm - Break
9pm-11pm - Expressions of You coffeehouse open mic
11pm-12am - Downtown bars and clubs

Sunday 10/5

12am-3am - Downtown bars and clubs
3am-7am - Waffle House decompression and some registration
7am-11am - Portland: churches, fast food, gas stations (28th st)
11am-3pm - Shawnee: Market, Broadway
3pm-7pm - Park Duvalle and coming back along Algonquin
7pm-9pm - Rounding it out in the Highlands on Bardstown Road, etc.

Lexington primary contact - Ondine Quinn - Ondine@kftc.org - (614) 370-3009

Louisville primary contact - Colette Henderson - Colette@kftc.org - (502) 767-5735

    Spearheaded by KFTC ally, UK Greenthumb Environmental Club, UK students are continuing to push for a $6-$8 Green Fee to subsidize green energy and education on UK's campus.

    Student activists overwhelmingly won a ballot initiative in support of the green fee last year, but the Board of Trustees denied the change.

   The proposal would allot 40 percent of the money to renewable energy purchases, 40 percent to conservation education and 20 percent to energy efficient technology upgrades.

    KFTC has and will continue to support the students in establishing this green fee.

    For a full story, see last Friday's story in the Kentucky Kernel.

   Here's a video from last week's voter registration table at UK's Constitution Day.  Thanks to John Ghaelian and Danny Cotton for walking through how to fill a voter registration card out with us - and thanks to Jerry Moody for filming.

"It's great KFTC is making their presence known on campus, growing as a student organization but, most importantly, making sure students can make their voice heard come Election Day." -Danny Cotton

Over a four and a half hour period on UK's campus today, we registered TWO HUNDRED and THIRTY SEVEN voters.  That's almost a voter per minute for four hours and more than we've ever managed at a single afternoon event. 

We had great conversations with incoming freshmen excited about getting involved with KFTC, we reconnected with other people we'd not seen over the summer, and made a few key connections with professors and student leaders to schedule other events like class visits, meetings, and special events.

Hats off to the UK KFTC members including Watson Harding, Erin Murphy, Joe Gallenstein,  Scott Beckmeyer, Caitlin Powell,and John Ghaelian, as well as one of our Electoral Organizers - Danny Cotton.

KFTC Member Jane Jensen took some pictures of the event which we should have up within a few days.   

For those of you who live in the 75th House District in Lexington:

As many of you know, Representative Kathy Stein is now running for Ernesto Scorsone's old Senate seat, which leaves a vacancy in a legislative district with a high concentration of Kentuckians For The Commonwealth members.

 As part of our Voter Empowerment campaign, we want our members and our issues to be part of the discussion and the process as both parties pick who their candidates for this new vacancy are.

Later today (Wednesday) the Democratic party will hold a candidate forum for people to learn about the contenders for this seat. 

75th District Representative Democratic Forum
Wednesday, August 6th
6pm - 9pm
Memorial Hall, UK Campus
(610 South Limestone St, Lexington)

Each potential candidate will deliver a brief address and answer questions from precinct committee members.

We want to make sure we have lots of members there to make an impact and serve as a visible presence. 

Remember - KFTC does not have stances on candidates or political parties, but we do have stances on issues and policy - something that we want to share with all candidates. 

If there are any public input forums like this to help select the Republican candidate, we'll let you know.  If you hear of any please pass the information along to us. 

For more news on these transitions, see this Herald-Leader article online .