Fulton County Voter Education and Outreach

Sandy Springs backs voter registration and education project
By Dan Whisenhunt on January 17, 2012.
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You can leave a response or trackback to this entry The Sandy Springs City Council is getting behind an effort to educate and register voters in the city and in the rest of Fulton County.

At its regular meeting on Jan. 17, the City Council approved a measure supporting efforts by the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections to increase voter participation.

According to data provided by to the city by Fulton County, there are around 68,000 people in the county who are eligible to vote but not registered; about 40,400 are in north Fulton. The county reported another roughly 105,000 county residents are registered but not active voters.

In Sandy Springs, that breaks down to 7,985 eligible but unregistered voters and 11,792 registered but inactive ones.

Mayor Eva Galambos is a big advocate for the outreach program and has already signed up to be a registrar, as has councilwoman Dianne Fries and a few other city employees. As part of the effort, City Hall will host registration events and there will be registration booths at various festivals and functions around town.

“We feel that all of our residents need to exercise their rights as citizens,” Galambos said, when asked about her enthusiasm for the effort. “It’s an absolute cop-out if you live in this wonderful country and don’t vote.”

The Voter Education and Outreach Program is the idea of Samuel Westmoreland, interim director of the Fulton County Registration and Elections Department, and William Riley, a Sandy Springs Municipal Court solicitor and a member of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections.

Riley told the council that North Fulton cities will need to take a leadership role to keep education efforts going past the 2012 election cycle.

“We want to make this an ongoing thing,” Riley said. “ I don’t know how long Fulton County will continue to fund people to register people to vote.”

Westmoreland said one of the inspirations for the idea came about because many of the calls his office received on election day were what he termed “education calls” and said informing voters is a region-wide issue.

“In all honesty, I’m the interim director and one of the passions I’ve had is educating the public,” Westmoreland said. “I was able to use my leverage to ramp up our education efforts.”

According to the Fulton County Registration and Elections website, the list of groups the registration effort is trying to reach includes senior citizens, high school and college students, neighborhood residents, church congregations, and civic organization members.

In other business the council:

•Appointed Lane Frostbaum, Jim Squire and reappointed Lee Duncan to four-year terms on the city’s Planning Commission.
•Appointed Alvin Johnson and Eric L. Johnson to four-year terms the Board of Appeals, and reappointed Ron Carpinella.
•Approved $60,000 for engineering design fees for Morgan Falls Road improvements

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http://alpharetta.11alive.com/news/news/97783-fulton-officials-want-voters-exercise-very-perfect-right

FULTON | Officials want voters to exercise 'very perfect right' ALPHARETTA, Ga. -- On the heels of the nation's first presidential primary in New Hampshire, election officials in Fulton County are pushing to get more voters registered. On Wednesday, they'll launch a new initiative in six cities in north Fulton ...