toledoblade.com --

Isaiah Townsend says he doesn't know what he will do if President Bush is elected to another four-year term.

"We just can't go on like this," said the barber at Headquarters on Lagrange Street. "This time everybody has to vote."

A couple of months ago, he decided to do something about voting Mr. Bush out of office. He started handing out voter registration forms to patrons and area residents who wandered into his shop.

While it's the only business known to be distributing voter registration forms, other groups including the Toledo League of Women Voters, the Toledo chapter of Project America Coming Together, and the Lucas County Democratic and Republican parties are running high-stakes voter registration campaigns in their efforts to keep Ohio a key swing state come November.

In Toledo, people tend to register to vote in higher numbers during the presidential election seasons, said Paula Hicks-Hudson, the director of the Lucas County Board of Elections.

Lucas County has 299,994 registered voters; 49,411 of them are listed as inactive because they have not voted within the last four years. By the end of June, 11,000 new voters were processed and added to the county rolls, said Ms. Hicks-Hudson.

According to the Help America Vote Act of 2002, U.S. citizens may register to vote at county board of elections offices, bureau of motor vehicles offices, public schools and libraries, and county treasurer offices.

Mr. Townsend and the other barbers in his shop said they decided to hand out voter registration forms in their neighborhood "because young black voters are being left out of the political system.

"We tend to be the pulse of the community," said Ron Estelle, also a barber at Headquarters. "When these kids come in to cut their hair, we ask them about some of the issues they are interested in and then we hand them a registration form and hope that they'll think about voting."

That is all most local political operatives could ask for, especially in Ohio, which is expected to be one of the states that could swing the outcome of the election, effectively picking the next president.

"We believe that if more people in Ohio vote, the better the chances are for our candidate to win," said Brendon Cull, a spokesman for the Democratic Coordinated Campaign, an organization campaigning for the Kerry/Edwards ticket in Ohio.

Meanwhile, Jonathan Shradar, an official of the Ohio Republican Party in Toledo, said that more than 80 Bush/Cheney volunteers are starting a three-week voter registration campaign this week that will target areas with new development zones, such as parts of southwestern Lucas County where new neighborhoods are sprouting up.

"We plan on going door to door registering people and helping others renew their voter cards," said Mr. Shradar.

He is the coordinator of the Bush/Cheney 72-hour campaign drive, which will focus its efforts in getting out the vote in the waning hours of the campaign. He said he didn't recall an election season when the Republican Party here made such a concerted effort in registering voters.

Since June, the Ohio Republican Party and Bush/Cheney volunteers in Toledo have registered an average of 100 to 150 people a week in Lucas County, Mr. Shradar said.

In this crucial election season, the Ohio chapter of Project America Coming Together is determined to get as many voters as possible to the polls; it is a national organization dedicated to energizing and registering Democratic and progressive voters.

Jess Goode, the organization's communication director, said his volunteers have registered more than 60,000 voters in Ohio within the last year.

"We are out there having great conversations with people about job loss, health care, and public education," Mr. Goode said.

Nonpartisan groups also have taken a role in registering voters this year.

The Toledo League of Women Voters is particularly interested in educating voters about registration changes implemented when the Help America Vote Act was enacted in 2002, said Bonnie Bishop, president.

Ms. Bishop said her organization is working to get more elderly people registered and is advising the Catherine S. Eberly Center for Women at the University of Toledo on how to run its voter registration campaign that encourages returning students to register to vote.

"This is such an important election for so many reasons and especially for young women. We want to help them realize their voting power," said Patricia Murphy, the center's interim director.

Jessica Sutherland, a senior from Port Clinton, said she and other volunteers will have a lemonade stand at UT's Tucker Hall on Campus Drive.

Their goal is to draw the students' attention as they move into their dorm rooms on the first day of the school year.

"The problem with college students is that they don't realize that they can still register and send in absentee ballots," Ms. Sutherland said. "A lot of them are busy with everything and don't want to be inconvenienced. We plan on making it as easy as possible for them," she said.

But Ms. Sutherland, who is majoring in financial services and minoring in professional sales, said it's not enough to get students registered.

She plans to place every person she helps to register on an e-mail list and will send them constant reminders to vote as Election Day draws closer.

Ms. Sutherland said she was inspired to start the voter registration campaign because she was "tired of people complaining about politics and then doing nothing about it."

Contact Karamagi Rujumba at: krujumba@theblade.com or at: 419-724-6050.

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