‘Voting is about your community’: Bell County organizations focus on outreach ahead of election

BELL COUNTY, Texas (KWTX) - The deadline to register to vote for the November election is on Oct. 11. With just a few weeks left until then, Central Texas organizations are focused on mobilizing voters.

“We are encouraging people to get registered to vote, empowering you to vote and getting you to the polling locations,” TaNeika Moultrie, Killeen’s NAACP chapter president, said.

That’s the three-part strategy the Killeen NAACP chapter is using now. On Saturday, the organization hosted a Voter Block Party at the VFW Post 9191 to kick off the campaign to meet the goals.

At the event, volunteers walked across the street and knocked on doors in the Marlboro Heights Neighborhood, which was Killeen’s first Black neighborhood back in the 1950s.

Today many low income and minority families still live in the area. It’s people like this that the NAACP is hoping to mobilize and encourage to get out and vote in November.

“Lower income areas don’t always get the opportunity to go vote and they are scared about IDs and transportation getting there,” volunteer Delise Coleman said.

The goal is to increase voter registration by 5% in the area by the Oct. 11 deadline.

“I believe that they are missed communities,” Moultrie said. “We want to make sure that we are engaging with them, we are reaching out to them and we are communicating with them.”

For the Bell County Republican Party, the next few weeks are about hosting two or three voter registration events a week leading up to the registration deadline.

“We are going to be running a get out the vote effort with quite a few volunteers, block walking and phone banking,” Mack Latimer, Bell County Republican Party chair, said.

The next few weeks are all about connecting with people and encouraging them to make their voice heard on Nov. 8.

“You have to get out in your community,” Coleman said. “Because voting is about your community.”

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