“Don’t register any of those dumb Republicans” they tell us. Or “Who do you work for? It’s the Democrats who are paying you right?”

They can even break relationships.

Once German told us that a couple was registering to vote and the woman registered Democrat. When he asked her boyfriend if he was also a Democrat, he said no.

“Mark Republican.”

The girlfriend was shocked.

“How come you never told me you were a Republican?” She couldn’t believe this new found information.

German finished registering them and left them… arguing.

We tell people our organization is non-partisan, and we are doing voter registration because we want to spread political knowledge to the community so they people can get involved.

One of the most common questions we tend to have is, “for what party they should register?” We are a non-partisan organization, but as individuals we have our own beliefs. To keep it non-partisan, we rather give them examples.

Barak Obama is a Democrat. The governor of California is a Republican. The last president was a Republican too.

Giving those examples bring up a lot of reactions.

“Ah, lets get rid of the ‘Govern-ator’. That good for nothing movie star! Put down Democrat.”

Or…

“Obama is running the country to the ground! Register me as a Republican.”

Then we have the “other” parties. The ones not many care about because they lack numbers and media coverage.

They are the Green Party, the American Independent Party, the Libertarian Party, and the Peace and Freedom Party.

It’s hard to come up with example for those parties. The only example I had was the Green Party’s Ralph Nader, but no one has heard of him.

I had to Google them, and found some interesting information you all need to find yourself.

But people do register for these parties. They either don’t know what it is but they like how the name sounds, or they actually know what these parties stand for.

Community involvement is key to democracy. Whether it be by a simple vote, or marching in the streets, it is required that we be active, as a republican, democrat or an “other.”

-Jocelyn Gomez