By Mike Moore
Journal Times | Posted: Tuesday, November 4, 2008 12:00 am
RACINE - Students wearing yellow shirts blanketed the area Tuesday, passing out cards that indicated where to vote and a number to call to get a ride to the polls.
In the late afternoon, one group of Park and Horlick high school students went door-to-door on North Memorial Drive and urged passing drivers to "Go vote!" By then, the students were among around 100 targeting the 10 wards with the historically lowest voter turnout, said Julia Rosales, a team leader in the voting drive and a junior at Park. Earlier, she said, roughly 400 students had covered a wider area.
"It's been really fun, but it's been really hard work, too," Rosales said.
Four months of planning went into it, she said, including recruiting students and training them how to handle different questions about voting. The team also included Asia Cornelius, Alan Moore, Edward Fitch, Joel Sepulveda, Lauren Clemons, Victoria Price and Alyssa Zertuche.
They're members of Voces de la Frontera, an organization that advocates for immigrant rights. The where-to-vote cards were printed in both English and Spanish and also listed the NAACP as a sponsor of the event.
Though none on that team was of voting age, the students said they're not oblivious to the importance of this election.
"It really is affecting our future," Rosales said.
Some people told the students they should be in school. They had to work ahead on homework and get approval to miss classes, they said. An occasional homeowner would even slam the door on them, but Fitch said most were positive.
Shawn Howard appreciated the effort. Having just moved here, he learned from the students he had to vote at the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, 1134 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
"I'm from Illinois," he said. "I wouldn't have known where to go."