Today was the beginning of my career in political advocacy. Yes, I have been involved with political advocacy before but it was all high school politics. I managed to work my way up to student body vice president, but today was what I consider to be my first day of helping my community in a bigger way.
Thanks to my dear friend and mentor Jan Strout I became involved with Montana Women Vote. Montana Women Vote is a non-profit organization that focuses primarily on mobilizing and educating low-income women and those in the lower demographics. It is their/ our mission to support these women and their allies into becoming informed voters, community leaders and policy advocates.
Here is the Montana Women Vote link for further information http://www.montanawomenvote.org/
It just took a simple 30 minutes for me to realize how incredibly amazing this organization truly is. While being trained by Jan I learned so many little details that this organization does to make the voters experience as easy and educational as possible. Informational paper after informational paper was flying at me every five seconds. From a free voters guide to a non-partisan action alert email that sends out monthly updates on recent actions on the political battle field. After updating my own voter registration I was set to work.
Stationed outside the front doors of Bozeman's Safeway I; in a very mild and sincere way, badgered every individual who was about to go shopping. Sweetly asking "Hey there, is your voter registration up to date?" or "Hi, have you been registered to vote!?" When registering, we assume that most people are already registered and when someone does happen to say no it's always a little exciting. It feels so empowering to be able to assist an individual to get their right to have a vote, whether it's left, right, or upside down. But within the "no's" I'll still get a few who continue to walk away and not turn towards my little card table full of voter registrations, information pamphlets, and e-mail sign ups. When I ask the inevitable question, "Well, would you like to be registered?" and they answer, "Because I hate politics," or simply, "I don't vote," I always stop and wonder. Is our political system THAT messed up for individuals to quite literally not give a damn about what happens next? Or is it a personal choice to remain ignorant and uninformed? Whichever it is, I wish they would choose to take the few minutes to become educated. I believe it is our duty to be knowledgable and informed. As an American citizen it is our right to cast a vote and have a voice, no matter how tiny we believe it to be.
Anyways, back to my fabulous day! I worked for two hours, collecting a total of 12 new or updated voter registrations. I am so incredibly excited to have this opportunity to help out our community in such a detrimental way. It is one thing to get a person to register, it is another to get them to make it to the polls. When an individual registers with MWV they receive a free, non-partisan voters guide and have an opportunity to join a free "In the know" e-mail list where they receive monthly updates and invitations to open information forums and panels spread throughout the community. My next volunteer date is on Tuesday and I will be down at the farmers market in Bogart Park. So excited!
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