|
Posted: On theroot.com April 24, 2012 at 8:40 PM By: Joshua R. Weaver
NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous was joined by radio host Tom Joyner, American Urban Radio Networks Program Operations President Jerry Lopes and others on Tuesday to unveil a joint phone initiative to empower potential voters. 1-866-MY-VOTE-1 is a hotline that provides information on voter registration, polling locations and tools to report incidents at polling stations.
In light of voter-ID and other restrictive voting legislation, 1-866-MY-VOTE-1 may be an essential and easily accessible way to inform and protect black voters.
“What we’ve gone through in the past six months [is the] biggest wave of voter suppression since the wave following the Civil War,” Jealous said. “We have to be prepared to make sure people get registered [and] turn out. We can only do that if we come together as one family.”
1-866-MY-VOTE-1 received more than 300,000 calls in 2008 and helped to register almost 100,000 voters. And with several celebrities — including Angela Bassett, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke and Kevin Hart — on board to promote the hotline this year, 1-866-MY-VOTE-1 may shatter records as it takes on the 2012 presidential election.
For more information on the NAACP’s voting initiatives, including 1-866-MY-VOTE-1, visit the organization’s website.
|
