Candidates, Slots Issue Lure New Md. Voters

County Event Adds 1,000 Registrants

Prince George's County election officials and their counterparts across Maryland were set to assemble a final count of voters yesterday after the registration deadline for the Nov. 4 election passed Tuesday night.

Intense interest in the presidential contest between Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.), as well as the Maryland referendum on slot machine gambling, has helped swell the ranks of registered voters over the past year. Maryland officials said last month that they had expected 250,000 potential new voters to register by this week's deadline.

More than 1,000 potential voters registered in Prince George's during the recent national One Vote drive. The event was sponsored by Lanham-based Radio One with local drives hosted by the broadcasting company's 53 stations. Joining in the effort was the District-based Hip Hop Caucus.

For many of those who signed up during the drive at the Mall at Prince Georges in Hyattsville on Sept. 30, the motivation to vote was rooted in the economy's downturn.

"I'm doing it for change. The economy is messed up, and it's hard to get a job," Christopher Carter, 27, said as he filled out a registration form. "I've been unemployed for a while, and I only have one year of college, and it's not enough."

Marjorie Lewis, who was born in Jamaica and recently became a U.S. citizen after living in the United States for eight years, said she will vote in her first presidential election this year.

"The economy is the most important issue," she said. "I have a son in high school and a son in college who is studying architectural engineering. With the housing market, I'm not so sure he should stay in that field, but he thinks that it will turn around."

The One Vote initiative registered 30,032 voters in 16 cities. The event in Prince George's accounted for 1,043. Elsewhere in the region, 1,140 signed up in Baltimore, and 1,800 registered in Richmond.

The Washington area Radio One stations that came together to register voters included WKYS (93.9 FM), WMMJ (102.3 FM), WPRS (104.1 FM), WOL (1450 AM) and WYCB (1340 AM).

"Obviously we're very excited to have registered 30,000 people in one day," said the Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president and chief executive of the Hip Hop Caucus, who co-founded the 2004 Vote or Die campaign with Sean "Diddy" Combs.

"I would assume that most of them are first-time voters, that 90 percent are," Yearwood said. "The bottom line is, for most people who are in my generation, in their 20s or 30s, to get out and vote. All they have ever known is a president with the last name Clinton or with the last name Bush."

Many newly registered voters said they supported Obama, and those who were registering them at the Prince George's event said support for Obama was overwhelming. Many of those registering to vote said their support was not solely because Obama is the first African American presidential nominee of a major party.

"I have a daughter who is 15 and a son who is 11," said Jeanine Palmer, 32, who would be voting for the first time in a presidential election. "I want a better future for myself and for them. Not just because it's going to be a black president, but because I believe he really can help with jobs, health care, everything overall."

Many area celebrities and officials appeared at the drive to help attract registrants. They included artist Raheem DeVaughn, rappers Q-Tip and Nelly and author Zane. The Rev. Jay Cameron of the Life Center in Oxon Hill and the Rev. Grainger Browning Jr. of Ebenezer AME Church in Fort Washington also participated.

Prince George's State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey (D), who has campaigned for Obama in Virginia, assisted with the registration effort. Ivey said his constituents in Prince George's are experiencing "incredible dissatisfaction" with the economy.