Get Out the Vote Efforts

Last week, in our press conference announcing the Charlottesville-Falls Church Voter Turnout Challenge, Rick Sincere (chair of the Charlottesville Electoral Board) correctly pointed out that it is political parties and candidates who have primary responsibility for mobilizing people to get out and vote. But there's no reason why the City of Charlottesville cannot complement these partisan activities with a non-partisan effort to educate our residents about the voting process and to ensure that voting proceeds as smoothly and efficiently as possible. To that end, the City will soon be distributing a voter information flyer to every household in Charlottesville -- click here to download the flyer, and feel free to pass it on to anyone you know. The City schools will also be sending a copy of the flyer home with every student. We are promoting the fare-free transit day on Nov. 4, we will have extra City staff on hand at the polls to get people in and out as quickly as possible, and my next "Postcards from Charlottesville" TV show (to debut this coming week) will feature Sheri Iachetta, our Registrar of Voters, who will discuss voting procedures, absentee voting, plans for Election Day, etc. These are just some of the steps we are taking to 'promote the vote' -- and hopefully ensure that the citizens of Charlottesville can claim title to the highest turnout rate of any City in the state in this year's election!