In what many are calling a politically charged election year, organizations from all over the county are scrambling to convince minority voters that their votes count.
Debbie Cheshire, deputy director of the Orange County Board of Elections, said voter registration forms have been pouring into the board's Hillsborough office.
According to the Board of Elections Web site, 83,782 county residents were registered to vote as of July 8. That number has jumped to 87,590 as of Sept. 18, the N.C. Board of Elections reports.
Cheshire said most new voters fit at least one of two characteristics: many of them are black, and many registered in drives on the University campus.
Fred Battle, president of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said he knows the importance of voting -- particularly after the last election was so close.
"It is crucial (to register African-Americans), especially during the presidential election ... especially after what happened during the 2000 election," he said.
The local NAACP chapter plans on canvassing neighborhoods and making phone calls to encourage more blacks to vote. Members also are developing a program to register convicted felons.
Dorothy Shanklin, secretary of the northern Orange chapter of the NAACP, said it is important for minorities to use their right to vote. "They have the right to do so, and the right not to do so, which would be detrimental to them," she said. "It is important to us to get the right (candidate) in."
Other minority groups also are being encouraged to register. El Pueblo, a Latino advocacy and policy group based in Raleigh, has worked to register Latino voters both locally and at the state level.
