Black community wraps up huge voter registration drive

By Kristen Peterson (contact)

Monday, Oct. 9, 2000 | 11:28 a.m.

What has been called the black community's largest and most energized voter registration drive in decades concluded Saturday, the registration deadline, with a last-minute door-to-door effort that covered more than 2,500 homes.

For the past several months members of Las Vegas' black community have walked neighborhoods, canvassed barber shops, beauty shops and eateries, and stood outside grocery stores to register voters.

From pulpit to pulpit pastors have preached voter participation. Government leaders and organizers from groups such as the Southern Nevada Coalition of Concerned Women, the local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, black sororities and fraternities and the local chapter of the International Association of Professional Black Firefighters have worked together to register voters.

The state Democratic Party threw its weight behind the drive, bringing civil rights activist the Rev. Jesse Jackson to Las Vegas in September to address the issue.

The months-long effort registered nearly 7,600 new voters in predominantly minority areas, organizers say.

That may not seem like much compared with overall registration in Clark County of 551,577, but it's enough to make a difference in a close election, analysts and organizers say.

If the newly registered minorities vote, it could make an enormous difference in the upcoming presidential and Senate races, Ted Jelen, political science professor at UNLV, said.

"What determines elections is who votes and who doesn't. The party registration in Nevada is close to dead even," Jelen said.

As of August, the latest figures available from the Secretary of State's office, the state has 358,582 Republicans and 350,547 Democrats. In Clark County, Democrats edge Republicans 247,610 to 212,450 as of this morning, according to the county Registrar of Voters.

Jelen speculates that if the Senate race between Republican John Ensign and Democrat Ed Bernstein becomes tighter, "as few as 1,500 could alter the outcome. Not very many people are needed to register to win the Senate race."

David Cherry, spokesman for the state Democratic Party and former spokesman for Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., knows how big a difference a small number of voters can make. Reid won in 1998 by 428 votes, a difference that might have been made by any one of the minority communities, he said.

"Four hundred twenty-eight votes out of a half million really isn't a lot."

Democrats have much to gain from minority voters, and minorities have good reason to take an interest in the election, according to County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

"There is a lot at stake," said Gates, an organizer of the drive and a Democrat whose district includes predominantly minority populations in West Las Vegas and North Las Vegas.

This is the first time a person making minimum wage can prosper, she said, an issue that is motivating many low wage earners to support the Democrats.

Other issues motivating her West Las Vegas constituents are continued funds for programs like Early Childhood Development Centers and dental clinics opening this month, Gates said.

Of course, pointed out Ryan Erwin, executive director of the Nevada Republican Party, registration is only the first step. "The bottom line is turnout. If they register 2,000 voters, it can only be effective if they turn out 2,000."

Gates noted her district has in the past had the second lowest voter turnout in the county.

"Usually we don't vote," said the Rev. Marion Bennett of Zion Methodist Church, who has lived in Southern Nevada for 40 years. "We don't say anything. We are in a terrible predicament because of our lack of involvement at the voter box.

"You look at our schools, our achievement level and blacks in prison. We were going right back to where we were 30 to 40 years ago. We haven't been organized."

Jackson during his visit in September emphasized the number of blacks not voting, urging Las Vegas' minority communities to register 20,000 additional voters, which motivated the registration drive, said Franklin Simpson, African American Outreach director, who has been active in the drive.

"This all comes down to empowerment," Simpson said. "In minority communities it all comes down to representation of one's self."

In past elections, apathy is usually the given reason for poor turnouts at the polls, said the Rev. Robert Fowler, senior pastor of Victory Missionary Baptist Church in West Las Vegas. "But I think that's a copout. I think they haven't been as educated on the issues."

The registration drive has started to change that, he said. "There has been a successful educational campaign in the community."

A campaign to get the new registrants to the polls begins this week.