By GREGORY N. HEIRES

District Council 37’s community associations kicked off their voter registration drive for 2001 on May 19 with an all-day blitz to sign up voters throughout the city’s five boroughs.

“This labor-intensive work is crucial to the long-term strength of the union and our progressive allies in the city,” said DC 37 Deputy Administrator Eliot Seide.

“Being strong politically is especially important for DC 37 since we represent public employees, who live and work in the city,” said Political Action’s Associate Director Diane D’Alessandro.

The May 19 event was part of a larger effort by the union to register new voters in the union and the community. Many members are not registered, and the DC 37 Political Action and Legislation Department hopes to sign up thousands this year.

The plan is to register a first wave of new voters by Aug. 8, which is the deadline for voting in the Sept. 11 primary election. The department then expects to sign up a second wave of voters before the Oct. 12 deadline for the Nov. 6 general election.

Twenty facilitators, including coordinators and assistant coordinators from eight DC 37 community associations, worked with the Political Action Dept. and other union staffers to set up voter registration tables throughout the city on May 19. They registered hundreds of new voters.

“With what happened in Florida in the last elections, it’s more important than ever to vote,” said Marcellus Whittel. He registered at a table at Einstein Loop in Co-op City run by community association members Elmer Sanchez, a New York Public Library Guild member, and Bill Fenty, a DC 37 rep.

“Awareness of rights”
“It’s useful for the union to be out here to create awareness and consciousness of people’s rights,” said Josiah Campbell, who signed up in Harlem.

Volunteers expressed enthusiasm about the registration work, which often involves the one-on-one time-consuming task of convincing people of the value of the vote.

“I believe in this issue, so I decided to come out here in the community to help out,” said Supervisor of Electrical Installations Rand Harris, a member of Civil Service Technical Guild Local 375 and one of the volunteers at the Harlem location.

For the May 19 event, DC 37 worked closely with community groups, including the NAACP, Young Democrats, New York Urban League, and the Medgar Evers Student Association. Rank-and-file members from the targeted communities of Staten Island, Northern Manhattan, the Queens neighborhoods of Flushing and Jamaica, downtown Brooklyn, western Bronx and Co-op City volunteered, and activists from Municipal Hospital Employees Local 420 pitched in.

In February and March, the Political Action and Legislation Department worked with local union presidents to sign up voters. A mailing resulted in the registration of 3,000 DC 37 members, said Legislative Aide Marietta Kremmidas.

The Political Action Dept. is now running voter registration activities throughout the city every weekend, said Assistant Director Wanda Williams. Members and retirees who would like to participate or get a voter registration form should call (212) 815-1550.