Tuesday was National Voter Registration Day, and community activists are continuing events throughout the week to help Mississippians prepare for the November election. In Jackson State University’s Student Center, Karanja Matory with the non-profit Mississippi Votes is speaking with students during the campus’s annual registration drive.
Matory says “We’ve been at different local high schools today out in the community and also up here at Jackson State right now trying to get students registered to vote so there can be a large turnout come election day November 10th.”
Matory says by 1:00 pm Tuesday, his group had helped to register more than 200 students across the schools they had visited.
Among those students is JSU Senior Gregory Turner, who says he was registered to vote in his hometown. But now, he is updating his status to vote in Jackson where he has lived for several years.
“One thing that made me come register was leaning on that the water is bad in here,” says Turner. “The only way that we can fix it is if we come and vote.”
Dozens of these registration events are being held across the state. Ruth O’Dell is Co-President of the Mississippi League of Women Voters. She joined members of her local chapter to host voter registration events at two schools and a farmers market in Oxford.
“At this point it has become clear that if we want to keep our voting rights we have got to exercise them, and register, and then turn out for elections as well,” says O’Dell. “These were hard won fights. The league of women voters has been around for over 100 years, and if you’re female, then we’re the reason why you even have the right to vote.”
Voters can check registration status, see their polling location or update registration through the Secretary of State’s website as well as a county’s Circuit Clerk’s office.
