TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) — Bob Rackleff and the Big Bend Voting Rights Project is on a mission to get as many people registered to vote before the big 2022 election this fall.
"We did 400 registrations last year, and we want to at least double that this year," said Rackleff. "We have to go to neighborhoods with a low percentage of registered voters that live there, and go house to house at every house and find people who aren't registered and are eligible and we sign them up right there and then."
In the almost four years that the Big Bend Voting rights project has been around, the group has registered around 2,000 voters, according to Rackleff. About a third of them being ex-felons.
Political scientist Dr. Ed Moore says that the political season will soon start gaining speed, and voters should start looking into the races and issues that will affect them, saying local elections are just as important as state elections.
"The voters themselves should start paying attention. It's going to ramp up and by spring we'll have some serious discussion for the fall September primary and November general election," said Dr. Moore. "They affect actually your tax bill far greater than somebody running statewide does if you own real estate, you're paying a pretty big real estate tax, you got the local sales tax involved along with the state sales tax. Locally, you pay a lot of money for local government, and you should pay more attention to it."
State and local issues, a reason why volunteer Pam Stewart drives an hour to Tallahassee every week to get people registered to vote.
"I found that I like coming up here and trying to register people and helping them," said Stewart. "I believe in the cause."
