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Your vote counts. That's the message the Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout Campaign of Blount County is taking to women of voting age.

The American Association of University Women and the League of Women Voters in Blount County banded together to form the group with the purpose of getting women to vote in the upcoming presidential campaign. Both AAUW and LWV are, by charter, nonpartisan, non-political organizations -- members don't care how a woman votes, as long as she votes and lets her voice be heard.

Vandy Kemp, Maryville College vice president and dean of students, is chairing the steering committee. She is president-elect of AAUW Maryville and one of the founders of the LWV Blount County.

"The Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout Campaign is a project created by the American Association of University Women," said Kemp. "We have a guideline for doing a grass-roots project that we're following. By its mission, the League of Women Voters is committed, in a nonpartisan way, to educating voters and engaging them in the process. Both of those merged nicely in what we were thinking about for the presidential campaign."

The November presidential election was selected as the target election, with the aim to increase the percentage of women who are voting in that election in Blount County. In order to meet this goal, the group is doing three things: holding a voter registration campaign in various venues throughout Blount County; developing a bank of information about candidates and party platforms to be disseminated to voters; and identifying and reaching out to "drop-off" voters, women who are registered to vote but who are inactive voters, to encourage then to participate in the election.

Three-pronged attack

Nancy Heintz, a member of both AAUW and LWV, is spearheading the voter registration campaign.

"We have set up voter registration at Pellissippi College, and we will do it at Maryville College in August, and at Maryville High School and the other high schools in April, " Heintz said. In addition, a voter registration booth was set up March 8 at the Blount County Public Library. Other potential venues for registration may include day care centers, churches or community centers. Suggestions are welcome and may be offered by calling Kemp at 363-8110.

Dr. Susan Ambler, president of LWV and a professor at Maryville College, is leading the project to produce a voters' guide. Some of her students in the sociology class, "Social Problems," will work on that project, including M.J. Kim and Susan Woody.

"It's not directly a part of the Woman-to-Woman campaign, but the League of Women Voters also has a goal to produce a voters' guide, which would be a general resource for voters," Ambler said. "We're thinking we would put basic information in the guide about different political positions that we vote for in the local community, like the county commission, board of education, that sort of thing, along with what the qualifications are."

The guide will contain information on voter registration, dates of registration and elections, early voting procedures and locations, and precinct locations. LWV Blount County has applied for and received a $1,500 grant from the national LWV to publish the guide. When the presidential field has been narrowed to two candidates, the group plans to put together information about each one's platform and where they stand on issues of importance to the American people.

Drop-off voters

Ambler has also obtained voter records from the Blount County Election Commission that she hopes will help in the goal of getting drop-off voters back in the process.

"It's a list of all registered voters in the county, and on the database, there are some of the elections recorded as to whether the individual voted in the election or not," Ambler explained. "What we've talked about is trying to focus on women who have not voted in the last two presidential elections and target them. At some point they were engaged in the voting process but haven't been in more recent times for whatever reason. We are going to try to phone them and encourage them to vote. We are going to have to decide whether we can do more than that, like offer services in some way. But we are going to have to have volunteers to help us."

Information has also been gathered from surveys taken at the state and national levels as to why voters no longer vote. Kemp said those reasons include a lack of commitment to the process, taking care of children, lack of transportation.

"Often, it's apathy," Kemp said. "They don't care. I think that we've got a presidential election this year where (apathy) is not nearly as great. For any of us who have lived more than a couple of decades, this is the most exciting presidential campaign I remember for a long time. We're hoping that will encourage people to become engaged."

Roundtable discussion

Since both AAUW and LWV have relatively small memberships, with many members belonging to both organizations, the success of the Woman-to-Woman Voter Turnout Campaign will depend on bringing in additional volunteers and resources.

"If we mobilize everybody we've probably got 30 to 40 women," Kemp said. "We need a lot more to have any impact on this telephone project we've got. What we've come up with is the idea of having a roundtable for women who represent groups in Blount County. We'd like to have women representing all kinds of groups and organizations in Blount County to send a representative to us. What we want to do is recruit volunteers through them. I think it would be wonderful if we could have a hundred women helping us do phone calling. Then we could have a real impact on mobilizing women to get out and vote.

"One huge advantage we have in Tennessee is the early voting opportunity, so we don't want to focus on that one day in November. We want to try to encourage women to get out during early voting. It's just a question of getting enough people who are willing to make 10 or 20 or 30 phone calls. I think when a woman calls a woman, and it's a real person and not a recording, that it may have more impact."

The roundtable event, Woman-to-Woman: A Voter Turnout Initiative, is set for 7 p.m. April 10 at Bartlett Hall on the Maryville College campus. For information, call Kemp.