County Clerk Reaches Out To Unregistered Voters

By aaroncynic in News on Sep 25, 2012 7:30PM

Today is National Voter Registration Day, and with two weeks left to register before the upcoming election Cook County Clerk David Orr is urging eligible voters to file the paperwork. Currently, voter registration is down by nearly 250,000 people than 4 years ago, according to the Chicago Tribune. Potential voters between the ages of 18 and 34 make up more than half of that number. Overall, Chicago Election Board Chairman Langdon Neal said the number of registered voters in the city is currently 1.27 million.

Neal said the same excitement during 2008 does not exist in this election cycle. “I don’t think we have seen that same level of enthusiasm yet,” he told the Tribune, “though we are starting to see more interest and our registrations have begun to climb, but we still have a large hill to overcome here to get where we were four years ago.” CBS2 reports the County Clerk estimates 20 to 25 percent of residents in Cook County are not registered to vote.

In an effort to push for younger eligible voters to register, Chairman Neal announced an “Electronic Wizard” system, which allows for applicants to submit information via smart phone and simply sign and mail a form sent after submitting. Registration runs through Monday for the app, and the deadline for regular registration is Oct. 9.

Maybe they should try getting the cast of The West Wing together for a PSA.