I showed up at noon today at Mother A.M.E. Zion Church in Harlem, and joined several hundred Obama supporters for the kick-off of the national voter registration drive. As we entered the sanctuary, everyone was given a clipboard with 30 blank voter registration cards. We heard inspiring remarks from the church pastor (a nephew of Paul Robeson) and several local Democratic pols. Followed by a short training session in how to help folks fill out the cards. From there people went directly out onto the streets, to their own neighborhoods, and spent the afternoon engaging the public.
I worked the South Bronx, the same area where I handed out flyers for Barack on primary day. I signed up my first new voter outside the Bronx Courthouse, just up the street from where the new Yankee Stadium is rising. Then I strolled down to the Hub, at the intersection of Third Avenue and 149th Street. This is the oldest and busiest commercial area in the borough. The response was good - though I will admit there were many (primarily Hispanics) who are clinging to Hillary. I also encountered a lot of people who love Barack but who are not yet citizens. Altogether I registered 14 new voters, and gave out a lot of Obama buttons. (I always carry a pocketful of buttons to give out on the streets.) If all the volunteers who showed up at Mother Zion church today did roughly the same as me, we registered between 5,000 and 7,000 new voters today in all 5 boroughs.
Were you out on the streets for Barack today too? If so, register your results in my poll below.