Poor People's Campaign Begins National Voter Registration Drive

By CASH MICHAELS

September 20, 2019 12:15PM
Cash Michaels
Cash Michaels

Monday September 16th in El Paso, Texas, and continuing on to Greenville and Greensboro directly after; The Poor People’s Campaign: a National Call for Moral Revival will kick-off it’s 22-state “We Must Do Mobilizing, Organizing, Registering, Educating (M.O.R.E.)” National Tour, culminating on the National Mall with the Mass Poor People’s Assembly & Moral March in Washington, D.C. on June 20th, 2020.

Voter registration will be a highlight among the many activities planned at each stop, say organizers.

“The “We Must Do M.O.R.E.” Tour will shine a light on the conditions of those most impacted by systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism, and the distorted moral narrative of religious nationalism,” says the campaign’s website.

The second stop on the tour will take place in Greenville and Greensboro, NC Friday, Sept. 27 to Monday, Sept. 30th.

Troy Marrow
Rev. Barber
According to Rev. Dr. William Barber, co-chair of the Poor People’s campaign, the issues of the poor must be seriously addressed by those running for local, state and national office.

“We have identified areas all over the country where, if just 2% of poor and low-wealth people and their allies are organized, it changes the political calculus and can make a huge electoral difference,” Barber said in a statement.

Rev. Barber insists that this is a nonpartisan effort to empower poor and grassroots voters to have a say in the upcoming elections.

“Systemic racism is dangerously impacting our democracy from voter suppression to denial of immigrant and indigenous rights,” Rev. Barber continued. “The reality of 140 million people who are poor or low-wealth and just one $400 emergency away from being poor — and who represent every race, color, creed, religion, sexual orientation, and political party and account for 43.5% of the people living in the richest nation in the world — is a moral crisis.”

“It is no accident that, despite both parties appealing to their bases, the single largest voting-block in American politics is those who did not vote at all in the 2016 elections,” Rev. Barber continued. “The current system does not work for the poor and they make up the majority of non-voters.”

Cities and states the M.O.R.E. National Tour will visit include Concord, NH; Little Rock, AR; and Mobile, Selma, and Birmingham, AL.