New Haven Independent

“This is an historic opportunity” to use a hotly contested presidential race to boost local voting rolls, said New Haven Democratic Town Chairwoman Susie Voigt. Voigt (at center in photo, with Hill Alderwoman Andrea-Jackson Brooks at left) brought together the coalition and announced the drive at a Hall of Records press conference Monday afternoon.

Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz (at right in photo) joined her. Bysiewicz echoed Voigt’s point about how the presidential race can spur registration: She said 40,000 new voters registered statewide in anticipation of the February presidential primary, with another 40,000 registering since. Bysiewicz said she’s advising local registrars of voters to prepare for a 90 percent turnout in November.

Voigt said the tripartisan New Haven drive aims to “reach into every corner of this city — every supermarket, every level,” to add to the 56,461 city people curently registered. New Haven lags behind Bridgeport, which has 58,560 registered voters.

Rick Elser (at left in photo), who ran for mayor as a Republican last year, emphasized that as importat as registering voters is getting them to the polls. Green Party chief Charlie Pillsbury (at right in photo) summoned the ecumenical spirit of the event by declaring, “We’re all small-d Democrats in the end.”

Huddling in that spirit were Bysiewicz and city Democratic Vice-Chair and La Voz Hispana Publisher Norma Rodriguez-Reyes, who briefly ran against her for secretary of the state two years ago …

… and DeStefano for Mayor campaign manager Adriana Arreola (at left in photo) and veteran community activist Joelle Fishman (at right), who was running for Congress on the Communist Party line before Arreola was born.

The vote drive will rely on not just political parties but also community organizations like the NAACP and sororities like New Haven’s chapter of Alpha Omega Alpha. Dori Doumas (pictured) is an official with both groups, which have already begun organizing voter registration and education events.

“We have a great opportunity to get people off the bench” to participate in the electoral process, said Mayor John DeStefano. “The best people to do that are neighbors.”