Holding a voter registration drive in your community is a good way to be visible, to empower local citizens, and to avance goals of local issue campaigns.  Below is some basic information that might be useful in planning a registration drive. 

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1.  Get voter registration cards

Contact your local KFTC Organizer, or your local County Clerk and ask for Voter Registration Cards for your drive. 

For an especially large drive, it might be best to get cards from the State Board of Elections.  Email Anne Vansant at anne.vansant@ky.gov requesting a specific number of registration cards, mail-in registration cards, and voter information guides.  You can follow-up by calling the State Board of Elections at 1-502-573-7100.

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2.  Pick a time and location

Where is a good place to register voters in your community?  It might be a place where lots of people go like a community fair, a local college, or a grocery store.  Ideally, it might be a place where many people aren’t registered to vote or aren’t registered at their current address.

Kentuckians For The Commonwealth tries to focus on empowering voters in “traditionally disenfranchised” communities that are usually under-represented by politicians or have low voter turnout.  These include low-income areas, African American and Latino communities, as well as students/youth. 

3.  Have good information and know the law

To be eligible to register to vote, a person must:

•  Be a U.S. citizen
•  Be a resident of Kentucky not less than 28 days before the election
•  Be at least 18 years old by the date of the next General Election
•  Not be a convicted felon (or, if so, have civil rights restored)
•  Not have been judged mentally incompetent in a court of law;
•  Not claim the right to vote anywhere outside Kentucky.

* Minors 17 years of age who will become 18 by the November general election are eligible to vote in the prior May primary election only.

Check each voter registration card to be sure that it is complete.

• A complete residential address must be provided on the voter registration card.  Failure to do so will result in a delay in the processing of the application because the county clerk may not be able to assign a precinct.
• A mailing address must be provided ONLY if it is different from the residential address.  The mailing address is used to send the voter acknowledgement that his/her voter registration has been processed or when the county clerk’s office needs more information in order to process the registration application.
• The voter must mark a choice in the party registration field.  If no party registration is selected, the voter is eligible to vote for only nonpartisan offices in any primary election.
• A date of birth is required to verify that the voter meets the minimum age requirement for voting.
• Two witnesses are required for a voter signature ONLY if the voter uses a “mark” to sign his or her name.
• Try to make sure there is at least one phone number so the County Clerk’s office can follow-up with the person if information is left off of the card or is confusing. 

For more information, visit the KY State Board of Elections’ Voter Registration drive Checklist.

Don’t be afraid to refer questions you don’t know the answer to to your local County Clerk.

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4.  Be visible

• If you have a voter registration table, be sure to have good signs
• If you’re using clipboards, have signs on the back of each clipboard to be more visible.
• If you’re registering voters at a local concert, have someone announce your event from the stage. 
• Announce to crowds in a loud voice that they can register to vote or update their voting address, it just takes a few minutes, and the voter registration deadline is soon (where applicable).  Here's what you might say:   “If anyone else needs to register to vote, or update their voting address to where you’re living  now, you can sign up right over here.  It just takes a few minutes and there are just a few days left until the voter registration deadline”
• Consider announcing to the media when and where your voter registration drive will be.  Media attention will bring more people out to register to vote.

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5.  Turn in cards in a timely manner

The Voter Registration Deadline is an absolute deadline.  Voter registration cards turned in late will not be accepted.  Furthermore, it is a felony to willingly not turn in a filled out voter registration card by this time. 

The deadline to register for the 2006 Primary Elections is Monday, October 9th, 2006.  New voter registrations must be into the local County Clerk’s office (link) or the State Board of Elections by this date.  Mail-in registration cards must be postmarked by this date. 

It’s best to get filled out voter registration cards turned in as quickly as possible after contact information is recorded to stay in touch with the people we’ve registered. 

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6.  Follow-up

Because people who are newly registered generally have a low voter turnout rate, it’s important to follow-up and make sure these people vote.  Before you turn in cards to your local County Clerk, copy down name and contact information.

You can send reminder postcards to the people you’ve registered or call them leading up to Election Day to remind them to vote, offer to give them rides, etc. 

If you have any questions, please contact Voter Empowerment Organizer Dave Newton at Dave_HN@yahoo.com or (859) 420-8919.  We’re happy to help.