NAACP President and CEO Ben Jealous was joined by radio host Tom Joyner, American Urban Radio Networks Program Operations President Jerry Lopes and others on Tuesday to unveil a joint phone initiative to empower potential voters. 1-866-MY-VOTE-1 is a hotline that provides information on voter registration, polling locations and tools to report incidents at polling stations.
In light of voter-ID and other restrictive voting legislation, 1-866-MY-VOTE-1 may be an essential and easily accessible way to inform and protect black voters.
"What we've gone through in the past six months [is the] biggest wave of voter suppression since the wave following the Civil War," Jealous said. "We have to be prepared to make sure people get registered [and] turn out. We can only do that if we come together as one family."
1-866-MY-VOTE-1 received more than 300,000 calls in 2008 and helped to register almost 100,000 voters. And with several celebrities — including Angela Bassett, Mary J. Blige, Robin Thicke and Kevin Hart — on board to promote the hotline this year, 1-866-MY-VOTE-1 may shatter records as it takes on the 2012 presidential election.
For more information on the NAACP's voting initiatives, including 1-866-MY-VOTE-1, visit the organization's website.
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