By Ryan Pagelow

Read the original article at The Lake County News-Sun.

A coalition of civic organizations in Lake County has joined to register voters from underrepresented groups and hold candidate forums ahead of the upcoming November elections.

The Get Out the Vote coalition, led by the YWCA Lake County, plans to launch its campaign Friday to register 5,000 voters in the 8th and 10th congressional districts. The coalition of nine organizations is primarily targeting young people, African Americans, Latinos, immigrants and young, single women.

Register to vote

If you are a U.S. citizen and 18 years of age by the date of the next election and a resident of your Lake County address for 30 days immediately prior to an election, you can register to vote at the Lake County Clerk's office, 18 N. County St., Waukegan. For more information call (847) 377-2410.

"We're each doing our own separate thing, but coming together under one coalition," said Callie Melton, the coordinator of the program for ,YWCA.

Each group has their own way of registering voters in their targeted demographic, whether it's at churches, grocery stores, high schools, street festivals or going door-to-door.

The coalition will be launching a Web site with information on the candidates and election issues such as health care, women's rights, the war in Iraq and immigration. Candidate forums for the 8th and 10th congressional districts are tentatively scheduled for Oct. 13 and Oct. 18 at the College of Lake County to address some of those issues.

The Web site will also provide information about polling sites, absentee voting and early voting. Additionally the coalition is working on public service announcements in English and Spanish for print media, radio and television to remind people to vote.

The Waukegan Leadership Council is part of the coalition and has been registering mostly Latino and immigrant voters since it formed last year but plans to kick it up a notch this summer, said Jackie Herrera Giron, vice-president of the council. A coordinator will be registering voters on a full-time basis in Latino neighborhoods in Lake County, primarily in Waukegan, through funding from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights' New Americans Democracy Project.

The group plans to hold its own candidates' forum in October, similar to the forum the group held in January for candidates in the 10th Congressional District and 60th House District, she said.

Waukegan is 39.1 percent Latino, but only 27.8 percent of Waukegan's registered voters are Latino, according to estimates from the Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights. The group estimates that in Waukegan there are 5,500 Latinos who are citizens, but not registered to vote, and another 5,500 legal permanent residents who are eligible for citizenship.

The Coalición Latinos Unidos del Condado de Lake also received a grant to hire someone to help register about 300 new Latino voters this summer, said the group's president Ennedy Rivera. Working with the United States Hispanic Leadership Institute, the group registered about 1,800 voters last year.

For more information about the Get Out the Vote coalition, visit ywca.org/lakecounty/vote2008.

For years the NAACP has been registering voters in the area, but this is the first time the group is working in such a broad coalition, said Marian McElroy, president of the Lake County branch of the NAACP.

"It helps to keep each of us motivated by seeing what each other are doing," she said.

Her group registers mostly black voters in local churches, grocery stores and beauty and barber shops. The majority are people who have moved and need to update their voter registration with their new address, but the group focuses on finding people who have never voted before.

"With us, we really have to go out there and push. We can't just set up a table and people line up. You almost have to harass them," she said. "It's exciting to get someone who is 25 who has never registered and has registered."

There are currently 381,208 registered voters in Lake County, up from 377,738 in February when there was a 39 percent voter turnout in the general primary election, according to Lake County Clerk Willard Helander.

Other organizations involved in the Get Out the Vote coalition include the League of Women Voters, Citizen Action Illinois and Rainbow Push Coalition.

Vee Bannister of Waukegan registered to vote with her 23-year-old son Gregory Cochran. Bannister, who has voted in the past but recently moved, said this will be the first time her son will cast a ballot.

"All the votes count this time," Bannister said.