SOUTH-CENTRAL : Voter Drive Finds the Going Tough
Voter registration drives are wrapping up in South-Central Los Angeles, and community workers say the effort has been a hard sell among some Latinos and African-Americans who say they feel powerless to affect change through traditional means such as voting.
“People are apathetic and disillusioned,” said Connie Watson, program director for People Who Care, a South-Central community service group that is helping register voters. “They don’t see how voting is going to make a difference.”
People Who Care is one of 85 organizations taking part in “Coalition ‘92”, a countywide voter registration effort.
There are about 610,000 eligible voters in the area, but just 344,000 were registered as of late last week, according to Sharon Delugach, executive director of Jobs With Peace, another South- Central group taking part in the effort.
Delugach says 26,200 people have been registered since the drive began in early August, and organizers said last week they hoped to have registered 9,000 more by Monday’s deadline for voting in the November presidential election.
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