Group Wants to Add 10,000 Newark Voters to the Rolls

Voter turnout was high in Newark for the 2008 presidential election, when city residents came out in force for Barack Obama.

But while Obama will almost certainly be on the ballot again this November, Lynda Lloyd believes that this time around, something’s lacking among her fellow Newarkers.

“There’s really not the same energy in our community surrounding this election,” said Lloyd, 27, a former aide to South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka. “There was a lot more in 2008.”

Lloyd has therefore decided to inject a little energy of her own into the equation. The nonprofit organization Lloyd founded, Young Urbanites Unite, is hosting the Newark Voter Empowerment Tour, which aims to register 10,000 city residents by Oct. 16, the deadline for the general election.

Lloyd met Thursday at with represenattives from churches, civic organizations and individuals interested in assisting with the grassroots effort, which has a budget of exactly zero dollars, Lloyd said.

Instead of cash, Lloyd is counting on the groups and other volunteers to conduct voter registration drives during religious services, events, even barbecues. The group is planning to hold a festive drive at city hall Sept. 25, National Voter Registration Day.

Lloyd and Stephanie Gidigbi, who is also helping coordinate the effort, both stressed Thursday that because their group has non-profit status, the voter empowerment tour is a nonpartisan affair.

“We’re not encouraging anyone to vote for anyone,” Gidigbi said, adding that any groups working with the empowerment tour would likewise be barred from advocating for a particular candidate.

Although precise numbers are hard to come by, anecdotal evidence suggests the number of Newark residents  who can legally vote but are not registered is large. Apathy is one problem, speakers Thursday said, while others pointed out that those who had served jail time and fulfilled their parole obligations sometimes mistakenly believe they’re permanently banned from the voting booth. Among those attending the meeting Thursday was a representative from the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, which is assisting in the empowerment tour by offering advice on voting rights.

Yet another group -- the very youngest voters, those who are 18 or a few years older - can likewise be hard to reach, said Jerome Young of FamilyLove, an organization working to reunite broken families.

“It’s how you approach kids...when you bring up their grandmas, and they remember grandma, you talk about the things they had to go through in order for us to have a black mayor, a black president,” Young said. “You have to get them to understand what happened in their community.”