Saturday, July 07, 2012

Voter Registration at the Library

This year is an election year - are you registered to vote?

In the effort to make voter registration as easy as possible, the Homer Library will be hosting a VOTER REGISTRATION EVENT on Tuesday JULY 10th from 4-7pm. If you recently moved or turned 18 come on out and register! The Champaign County Clerk will have a representative here to register you - just bring two forms of identification showing your name - one must show your permanent residence, such as an Illinois driver's license, hunting or fishing license, library card, student identification, copy of a lease or rent receipt showing your address, or any piece of mail delivered to you at your residence. If you receive mail at a PO Box, please include this information with your street address. Voter Registration closes 28 days prior to an election and opens two (2) days after the election. In order to register:

You must be a citizen of the United States.
You must be 18 years of age on or before the date of the next election.
You must reside in your precinct for at least 30 days prior to an election.

We recently added to our collection a great movie about the struggles that women went through to get the right to vote. Ladies - remember, 100 years ago you would not have been able to vote! Iron Jawed Angels, is an HBO movie depicting the struggles of the early suffragette movement, which eventually gave women in the United States the right to vote. Spanning the years from 1912 to 1920, it stars Hilary Swank as Alice Paul who led the fight with ultimate courage. At the time, it was a state-by-state decision as to whether or not women could vote. But Alice Paul wanted to make it a constitutional amendment. Alice Paul and many of her followers suffered dire consequences for their courageous actions.

If you are interested in learning more about this subject or about American history in general, please visit your local library. If we don't have what you are looking for on our shelves, we can get it for you!