Democracy Matters's enthusiasm looks beyond Election Day

John Palmer Features Editor

The Election of 2004 may be coming on Nov. 2, but don’t expect Democracy Matters to call it quits on Nov. 3. The four-year-old organization has already been working to up membership as it prepares for the political off-season. Of course, this doesn’t mean that they’re not doing anything to prepare for next Tuesday, either.

Democracy Matters is a nonpartisan political organization with the intent of informing voters about candidates and informing citizens about the democratic process. There are approximately 15 core members and meetings are held once a week.

“Democracy Matters is interested in reinvigorating the political system through greater participation in politics,” said Democracy Matters Vassar Coordinator Kathryn Goldstein ’05.

To prepare Vassar and the Poughkeepsie community for this election, Democracy Matters planned to work this election year to help voters register and make an informed decision on Nov. 2 by creating a voter’s guide. Goldstein explained that many students at Vassar are registered in New York, but probably don’t know that much about local candidates running for office.

“We’ve been doing a lot of stuff for this election,” said Goldstein. “We have done tabling in the College Center” to get students registered to vote. In addition, Democracy Matters took part in “Get Out the Vote Week” to help inform and motivate potential voters. “We’ve been reminding people of the importance of voting,” said Goldstein. This election served to make more people aware of politics, and Democracy Matters is going to make sure they are informed. “It’s important to put a positive spin on politics. Eighteen-20-year olds need to know their vote does matter,” she said.

Democracy Matters has collaborated with a number of different political groups on campus to promote their effectiveness. For example, they worked with the Coalition to Defeat Bush as a way to help spread registration efforts and to further motivate potential voters. With this effort, Democracy Matters has helped students register for absentee ballots as well. “It’s complicated and every state is different,” said Goldstein. To support this effort, Democracy Matters has gone “dorm storming,” where 20 to 25 people go around dormitories, knock on doors, and help students to register.

The goals of Democracy Matters reach a long way beyond this election. They are capitalizing on the greater political awareness to help gain more members and energy, so their actions will continue. “We really have a lot of goals that are beyond this election,” said Goldstein. “We’re open to having anyone in [Democracy Matters]. We’re going to be sticking around.”

Those other goals include lobbying at the New York State capitol in the spring in an effort to help highlight how money affects issues in politics. There have also been a number of flyers around the dorms explaining this money-politics link. One such project is researching how Nader is raising money this year. Many contributions have been from Republican sources claiming to help third parties grow, but many suspect these contributions have been used to draw votes away from Senator John Kerry.

Democracy Matters has managed to keep all these ideas in mind, along with remembering the fact that, no matter what, life will go on past election day.