And you thought the Election was over...

Now that the General Election is behind up, we can lift our eyes up a bit to see some longer-term Voter Empowerment opportunities and updates coming up.  Here are a few to be thinking about and to get on your calendar.  

Party Change Deadline in under 7 weeks

December 31st is the date by which you must be registered to vote as a member of the political party whose primary election you want to vote in in 2011.  Note that Independents and Democrats cannot vote in partisan Republican primaries and Independents and Republicans cannot vote in partisan Democratic primaries.

To check what party you are currently registered as, visit https://cdcbp.ky.gov/VICWeb/index.jsp

If you wish to change your political party affiliation so that you can vote in partisan primaries, visit your local County Clerk by the end of their business day Friday Dec 30th, or get a voter registration card postmarked by the 31st.

2012 Election Dates

It's not too early to get these on your calendar - particularly the filing deadline on Jan 31st.  There are a lot of state legislative and local county and city seats up next year and now is a great time to think about running for public office - or about people you know that you might encourage to run. 

Jan 31st - Candidate filing deadline
April 23rd - Primary Voter Registration Deadline
May 22nd - Primary
Oct 9th - Voter Registration Deadline
Nov 6th - General Election

Vice Presidential Debates in 2012 will be here in Kentucky
The Commission on Presidential Debates announced last week that the 2012 Vice Presidential Debate will be held right here in Kentucky - on Oct. 11, 2012 on Centre College's campus (Danville, KY).  This will put a little bit of national spotlite on Kentucky and we have some time to think about what we might do with this opportunity.  More info - http://www.kentucky.com/2011/11/01/1942262/centre-college-will-host-vice.html

Special Election in 5 weeks
There will be a special election for Kentucky's 82nd state house seat (Whitley and part of Laurel County) on Tuesday, December 20th.  We'll be mobilizing our members in this area to make sure they're getting out to vote.  The seat became vacant in last term when first-term Republican Rep. DeWayne Bunch was injured breaking up a fight at the school he taught at.