4 OPINION 1' u7 r, f;w f Page 4 Friday, January 13, 1984 The Michigan Dail _i Glenn holds the center; aims for the top I r' By Ellen Golin and Paul Morton As we are busy digesting the latest word t THE A -B MD /1 1952- 4i CA ~ a 'ttk ~tcAG Rat7 N, l'3 7NE . THE H-o I Will the registered poor vot By Joanmarie Kalter NEW YORK - "Excuse me, are you a registered voter?" Altagracia Robles, 31, is not eager to sign up - she says she's late, must get home, will do it Monday - but finally, she is coaxed over to the table. Robert Banks, the receptionist and music teacher at Henry Street Settlement House, where Robles' two small children come for day care, helps her complete the registration form. And he is made aware, once again, that this is only half the battle. "I DID THIS once before, but I didn't make the time to vote," Robles says. Will she vote this time? "Oh yes," she says mechanically. "I will try. It's a tlement houses, and clinics with the help of social service em- ployees and volunteers. Since May, SERVE has registered 60,000 in New York alone. Its nationwide goal is five million. But some think the numbers are misleading. "Let's face it," says Dave Collessano, a social- work student who helps SERVE. "These people fill out forms all the time. I'd be kidding you to say that really means they'll vote." UNLIKE THOSE WHO claim voter registration itself is a means of empowering the poor, Collessano finds registration meaningless unless people feel empowered already. "When they think they can affect their en- vironment, that's when they'll vote," he says. Some of the volunteers are more than efficient - and more energetic - than others. At the Human Resources Ad' ministration building in lower Manhattan, food-stamp and welfare recipients crowd around a tableas Ray Rosario yells, "Register to vote - or cut your throat!" Rosario's registrants seem committed and less defeatist than most. Rosario and his group have seized upon workfare - which many poor people see as slave labor - as a galvanizing issue. "You hear a lot of comments like, 'Register for what? Why bother?' says Rosario. "But people feel a lot of anger about being forced to work for such tow wages." Whatever the level of commit- ment at registration, everyone agrees that follow-up is the key. A study by Project Vote found that with little follow-up, only 29 per- cent of the newly registered tur- ned out to vote in New Jersey's 1981 governor's race. With mor vigorous follow-up the turnou rose to 66 percent. . Since turnout runs high in a presidential race, SERVE organizers believe far more than 66 percent of their newly registered voters could turn out in 1984. Kalter wrote this article fo the Pacific News Service.