Thursday, October 25, 2007

Get out and vote

Below, you'll find a series of six video clips of the candidates for Asheville City Council talking about the first time they voted. The videos were shot about a week ago at the Asheville Citizen-Times and edited by multimedia guy Doug Mayer. There are six clips in production, with the candidates telling us why they think it's important to vote.

The newspaper produced these clips as a public service to help encourage people to get out and vote. As you know, we had a horribly low turnout of 13 percent in the election primary.

Some stats from the primary:
- Only 577 voters were African-American, a number representing 7.5 percent of the vote. African-Americans make up about 18 percent of the city’s population. There are 6,773 African-Americans registered to vote in Asheville.
- Only 23 people reporting themselves as Hispanic voted.
- Only 203 people ages 18-25 showed up to vote. In that age range, 6,386 people are registered, according to state data.
- No polling site reflected both race and age diversity.
- The 376 voters at Roberson High were among the least diverse. Ninety-eight percent were white. Ninety-three percent were 41 or older.
-A comparable primary election in 2003 brought 16 percent of registered voters to the polls, said Board of Elections director Trena Parker.

The bottom line - we want you to vote. You can vote now, at the board of elections office in Asheville downtown. You can vote on Nov. 6. You can vote for up to three council candidates, and you can vote on the question of whether or not you want council elections to be partisan or non-partisan. If you don't live in Asheville, check with your local elections board office to find out who is on the ballot, and what referendums might be up for a decision.

Vote.

6 comments:

timpeck said...

No. Don't vote.

If you don't know the issues or the candidates or the proper role of government, please do not vote!

Stay home. Eat popcorn. Watch TV. Just, for God's sake, do not vote.

Gordon Smith said...

Thanks, Ash!

Cool series. I'm a fan.

ash said...

Thanks, Gman. Six more are in production, with each candidate talking about the importance of voting and being involved.

timpeck said...

There are more than two comments to this post.

Edgy Mama said...

Thanks for the interesting stats also!

Gordon Smith said...

Care to hear a couple of pieces of constructive criticism on the series? If not, stop reading now!

- The music is too melodramatic and ups the cheese factor by 40 degrees.

- The Title screen font is also incredibly cheesy.

I love the idea, and I look forward to more. The material can stand on its own without the Wizard of Ozzish "America the Beautiful" going off like a zombie siren.