Election 2004: Local students rally to get out the vote Election 2004: Local students rally to get out the vote (October 27, 2004)

By Nicole Boroff
Special to the Almanac

Echoing nationwide get-out-the-vote efforts, a group of students from East Palo Alto Charter High School in Menlo Park phoned residents of East Palo Alto and Menlo Park recently in a two-day push to encourage registered voters to go to the polls on election day.

Spurring the students on were facts from the 2000 election, when only 4,000 East Palo Alto residents voted out of the 7,000 who registered, said Jeff Gilbert, the high school teacher who organized the event. The reported disenfranchisement of voters in Florida was another motivator.

Students called thousands of voters, Mr. Gilbert says. Persistence was called for, he said, as some voters refused to talk and there were plenty of disconnected numbers.

"Most of the kids (who participated) are not old enough to vote, but they have a lot of pride in their community," Mr. Gilbert says. "Many of the kids stayed after school to call."

Moses Taufalele, 17, said he is committed to seeing that his 18-year-old friends do vote. "This event widened my view on politics," says Moses. "I think it was a good experience for me. ... We made a difference."

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