Kennesaw State NAACP hosted Voter Registration Forum

By Demetria Wells

The Kennesaw State Collegiate Chapter of the NAACP hosted their first voter
registration forum Wednesday, at Kennesaw State University.
The Kennesaw State Collegiate Chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People is dedicated to expanding diversity and
education on the issues of minorities on the campus of Kennesaw State
University. This year, the National Chapter NAACP vowed to register hundreds of
thousands of Americans to vote and help underprivileged communities get resources to
for communities whose voting rights were being violated. In alignment with this, the
Kennesaw State Collegiate NAACP decided to prepare its own voter registration forum
to ensure that the students of Kennesaw State University are educated on the Georgia
Senatorial and Gubernatorial elections.
The program started off with the executive board showing the Republican,
Democratic, and Libertarian candidates from the Senatorial and Gubernatorial
elections. They also had clips from each individuals campaign commercial.
The crowd seemed to be majority Democrat, because their reaction showed
favor to the Democrats in each political party. The most negative reactions
were to the Libertarian Party. Khadijah Hill, a member of NAACP and
attendee of the program had the most concerns on current governor
and re-election candidate Gov. Nathan Deal.
Its really interesting to see how Gov. Deal will handle the subject of
the Georgia Snow Storm last year, said Hill. Metro Atlanta was shut
Khadijah Hill I
Attendee 1

down for a week and people spent hours and even days on the

road, so I wonder how he and the other candidates will handle that.

NAACP also touched on the subject of minority voters and the how the
candidates may better serve those communities. This subject really hit home
for attendee, Corey Holland.
In my opinion, I feel like what Gov. Deals platform is very repetitive, said
Holland. It will be interesting to see how each candidate will try gain the
African-American vote primarily because of the big urban population in
Atlanta. As a minority, I feel our voices need to be heard.
At the end of the program the attendees were asked what they took away
from the program.
When I to go to the polls, I tend to go and just check boxes, said Alicia
Hicks. Now, I feel more comfortable going to vote because Im aware of
who Im actually voting for.
The President of the organization, Jasmine Graham, wanted to make
sure the event was an unbiased one. When asked how she felt, she
stated that she was ultimately pleased with the outcome.

Jasmine Graham 1
NAACP President 1

We wanted to make sure that all the candidates were equally

represented, said Graham. The students need to be aware of who
theyre voting for to make for a positive influence impact on the

number of them who actually go out and vote. Most people tend to only vote
in national elections, so I think its really important that our organization
stresses the importance of voting locally as well as nationally.
The Kennesaw State Collegiate Chapter of the NAACP encourages all
members of the community and Kennesaw State students to register to vote
before the October 6th deadline.