Okay, let's say you have five, six, seven people you know from work, family, friends, neighbors, whatever. Know if they're registered? If not...do something.
So this is what I did:
I had a former work buddy of mine that I trained to take over my route. Good kid. Nice family. So I called him and asked if he was registered to vote.
"Please. Don't get me started on that meaningless crap, Rick. I can't afford the time, and I can't afford to get called for Jury Duty."
I smiled. I had an idea. "Look, me and the boys and a couple others are barbequing some steaks. Some potatoes, salad...and my wife's old potato salad recipe. Why doncha swing by and talk about it some more."
He agreed, so I went to my boys and set them in motion. My youngest and his partner were in charge of shopping and cooking. I used to do all that, but now I'm pretty much recliner-ridden, save for the daily walk. So I left that for them.
My oldest and his wife I told to invite three or four of their friends and look up how to get people registered to vote online.
That Saturday my buddy stopped by with his wife and kids--oldest was eighteen in May!
When he came outside on our deck, the first thing he saw, besides the grill and our food, was a group of seven or eight gathered around my daughter in law sitting at our picnic table in the back yard with her laptop.
"New internet thing...?" he wanted to know.
I patted him on the shoulder. "She's registering people to vote."
He performed a perfectly snarky face-palm and then shook his head. "Whatever. If it's that easy I might as well." Then he did something I didn't expect. He turned to his oldest son and motioned him over. "Wanna register to vote?"
The kid shrugged.
I chimed in with, "Takes you a few minutes, and you can vote in the election this year."
The kid relented and soon both of them were registered.
Later that evening, before everyone left, my friend and I had a beer and talked politics.
"Look," I told him, "overall this is a good thing. You can vote for the President, because you can't stand Romney, and now you're giving your kid a chance to vote and participate. Good lesson, overall."
He downed his beer, wiping his mouth. "Yeah, well...if I get called for jury duty you're servin it."
All in all it was a good night. We registered six people, all of whom will most likely vote for Obama. We had good steaks (my son's partner is a whiz with food), good times, and we did some good in the world to boot.
Try it, have some fun. Do some good.