From January 2001 NASW NEWS
Copyright ©2001, National Association of Social Workers, Inc.

10,000 Voters Registered

Mobilize the Vote student volunteers register another New Yorker.
(CREDIT: NASW New York City Chapter)

NASW's New York City Chapter and Political Action for Candidate Election registered 10,288 new voters as part of their Fifth Annual Mobilize the Vote campaign on Oct. 12.

With the help of 90 MSW students from area social work graduate schools, the five-year total for the voter registration project is now more than 30,000.

Students from Columbia University School of Social Work, Fordham University Graduate School of Social Service, Hunter College School of Social Work, New York University's Shirley M. Ehrenkranz School of Social Work, and Yeshiva University's Wurzweiler School of Social Work joined NASW staff and the New York Public Interest Research Group in staffing tables in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods on the last day it was possible to register to vote in New York. Wearing bright, matching t-shirts, they stationed themselves near or in subway tunnels in Brooklyn's Fulton Street Mall, Manhattan's 42nd Street and Jamaica Center in Queens, among other locations.

Harriet Putterman, New York City Chapter staff, said she hopes other states will begin to implement similar drives. "There was nothing ornate about it," she said. "It was straightforward."

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