Current Release: September 11th, 2007 | Vol. XXIV Iss. 10

7-Eleven prepares for 11-08

By Margaret windley

mnw777@verizon.net

Since January, Kelli Karcher has registered 67 people to vote.

No, she doesn’t work in the city registrar’s office.

She’s a Wesleyan student, tutoring in Clarke Hall’s learning center. She majors in chemistry and math and minors in classics. Karcher, 22, does little voter registration on campus because she finds that Wesleyan students are typically well-informed about issues and candidates and are very private about their views.

But voter registration is a volunteer part of her job as a clerk in a 7-Eleven in College Park. She is serious about her quest. On the day of the state’s February primary, she made 500 cookies. They were free — one apiece — for anyone entering the store wearing an “I Voted” sticker.

She printed the registration and update forms off the Internet and keeps them near her at work. It just takes a few minutes to ask her customers if they are voters while ringing up their orders. To make the process as simple as possible for them, she has even bought and paid for stamps and envelopes and gives them out with each form.

She views this as a public service for her customers. Many College Park residents have dropped out of high school, she explains. They are poorly informed and lack simple opportunities such as Internet access that others take for granted. So she also brings in literature to inform interested customers on the issues and candidates, without trying to impose her views.

With typical ages of 18 to 30, the customers are close to the highest national demographic of non-voters — 18 to 26.

She characterizes a lot of them as high school drop-outs in dead-end jobs who don’t think that they matter to anyone except themselves. Others have gotten involved in drugs and gang activities. But she cares about the clients and wants them to improve their lives.

“If they would just think about a future,” she laments. “They think there’s no other path for them.

They’re a lot of good people. But some of them are in gang-related activities. But they are really sweet people. They don’t have to live that way.”

Voting is just the beginning. She does have an additional goal. After the national election and her own graduation from Wesleyan — perhaps during graduate school or teaching — she wants to set aside time to help drop-outs get their GEDs. This can include her coworkers, several of whom do not have high school diplomas or GEDs.

“She’s awesome, said Monique Fuller, a co-worker. “She’s telling people what is going on, basically.”

Thanks to Karcher, Fuller’s son, James Fuller, who just turned 18 last year, has filled out a voter registration form.

“She got him into politics,” said Fuller.

It’s not surprising that Karcher became interested in politics early. She does have her preferences — generally for the Democratic candidates. When in high school, she used to hand out flyers. In 1992 and 1997, when she was 7 and 11, she told her mother to vote for Clinton.  In 2000 and 2004, she also supported Democratic candidates. But she has really noticed a difference this year in the interest level in her neighborhood due to the candidacy of Sen. Barack Obama.

“Obama is drawing out a lot of the population who didn’t vote before,” she said. “He has a good chance.”