Group seeks to register 100,000 black voters before elections

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Posted 7:10PM on Sunday, June 2, 2002

ATLANTA - An Atlanta-based group has set a goal of registering 100,000 black voters before the November election, when key political seats across Georgia will be up for grabs. More than 100 organizers of the Georgia Coalition for the Peoples' Agenda gathered over the weekend to map their strategy. Civil rights veteran Joseph Lowery told them that voting is ``a moral obligation.'' Lowery is heading the coalition, which is a mix of religious, social and political groups. Members were training to register as many of the state's 600,000 eligible but unregistered African-American voters as they can before this year's elections. ``Some people say 'I'm through with fooling with politics.' But you've got to fool with politics or politics will make a fool out of you,'' Lowery told the group. Seats open this year include those for governor and lieutenant governor and other state positions, all representative seats in Congress and one for Senate, all General Assembly seats and many in county governments. The coalition members also learned about Georgia's new electronic voting machines, two of which were on display, so members can educate voters about how to use them. Georgia is buying 19,000 touch-screen voting machines for $54 million and hopes to have them in all 159 counties by the Nov. 5 general election. Georgia is the first state to attempt a statewide upgrade of election equipment since the 2000 presidential election debacle. Florida got the attention in 2000, but Georgia's percentage of uncounted votes was higher and twice the national average. About 94,000 votes for president went uncounted because the ballots registered votes for more than one candidate or none at all. Many of those were in Fulton and DeKalb counties, which use the same punch card ballots whose hanging chads became the center of controversy in Florida.