New President of the NAACP introduces Upload to Uplift

8,000,000 Black Voters Still Not Registered to Vote

Some people still do not think their voice counts

College Students cannot get absentee ballots

People in jail awaiting trial, who have not been convicted yet, also have the right to vote

People in PG County are trying to confuse the Black vote by posting signs that say Republicans vote on Tuesday and Democrats vote on Wednesday

People are not informed!

On Tuesday, September 16th, the new President of the NAACP, Benjamin Jealous, addresses some major issues regarding people that are not registered to vote, and introduced his plan for getting that 8,000,000 people registered.

This Monday was President Jealous's first day in office, and right away he was ready to address the public on his plans for this voting season. On Tuesday, Keeping Up with the Huxtables dialed into a conference call that Jealous was hosting.

For those of you that do not know, here is a little background on the new president:

Benjamin Todd Jealous is president of the NAACP, the nation’s oldest civil rights organization. The former news executive, activist and Rhodes scholar will be the youngest president and CEO in the organization’s 99-year history. Jealous got involved in his community when he was very young. When Benjamin Todd Jealous was only 14 years old, him and his friends were out commanding card tables and conducting voter registration drives. After registering thousands of new voters, Jealous realized the power of community organizing. (for more information visit the link http://www.naacp.org/about/leadership/executive/jealous/index.htm)

Anyway, so I dialed into the call eager to hear what the new President had to say. And boy was he excited to introduce his new plan to get more people to vote.

Upload to Uplift

This initiative uses Web 2.0 technology to encourage visitors to register and upload the email addresses of family and friends that are not registered. Upload to Uplift also uses a text message feature to remind registered voters to go to the polls on Election Day.

You just click on the icon on the side of my page. You upload your email contacts from your Google, Yahoo, Microsoft account, or whatever you have. It then sends a message spreading the word to your contacts to register to vote. Your contacts then can do the same thing for their contacts. All these contacts are able to register to vote on an online form. You can now reach your friends and family faster!

( for more information on u2u visit the link http://www.naacp.com/splashu2u.html)

Jealous also plans to use the old school methods of the NACCP, and actually send people out in the community, the door to door way. He brought up in interesting concept when touching on the door to door method. He talked about the NAACP talking to high school students and encouraging them to get their older family members to register to vote. He believes that a child might be able to convince their family members to vote by getting them to explain to their family,"that even though I might be too young to vote, vote for me, this is my future."

Jealous concludes his call with these words, "The Mission of the NAACP is to ensure that the politicians of this country, and the leaders of this country, at the end of the day make the promise of this country real for all families"

Keeping Up with the Huxtables stands behind the mission of the NAACP and encourages you to Upload to Uplift. We send out emails everyday...let your next email register at least one more person to vote!

1. What do you think about Upload to Uplift?

2. Do you have any questions for the new President on any of his other future plans? If you write a question, I will send it to him, and I will try and get a response out of him. I will later post the responses. (Help our leaders stay in the right direction)

(If you have a blog, President Jealous ask if you could put the Upload to Uplift widget on your blog. Visit http://www.naacp.com/ to download the widget)