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In the wake of the historic November election, the Ventura County Alumnae Chapter (VCAC) of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. has launched a voter registration and education campaign.

The chapter is signing up residents in Simi Valley to vote and providing them with general information about voting and their rights. Delta is a not-for-profit, membership organization that focuses on public service. It is a nonpartisan organization that does not endorse candidates for political office. However, the sorority recognizes the importance of getting out the vote for this important election.

Sen. Barack Obama, who became the first African-American major party nominee for president at the Democratic National Convention, could be the first African-American president. Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is the first woman nominated for vice president as a Republican and only the second to run for vice president on a major party ticket.

Voting is such a simple act that we can do to validate the importance of our opinions being heard, said Lekishia Moffett-White, president of VCAC.

VCAC has partnered with the Ventura County Chapter of the NAACP and Simi Second Missionary Baptist Church in registering voters. The NAACP has set up voter registration in other areas of the county and Simi Second has allowed the chapter to set up a table in their foyer to register voters every Sunday after church. The NAACP has launched a national voter empowerment initiative called Arrive with 5, which aims to increase African-American voter registration and participation. The campaigns goal is to increase African-American voter turnout by 5 percent more than the 2004 turnout. In the 2004 Presidential Election, 60.3 percent of whites voted compared to 56.3 percent of blacks, according to information on the NAACP National Web site.

VCAC has been serving Ventura and Santa Barbara counties since it was chartered in 1980. The chapters programs have varied as the communities it serves have changed. However, all programs and projects are related to Deltas national Five Point Program Thrust: Economic Development, Educational Development, International Awareness and Involvement, Physical and Mental Health, and Political Awareness and Involvement.

In addition to registering voters, the chapter demonstrates its commitment to political awareness and involvement by serving as gatekeepers to the political process by operating an election poll as part of Ventura Countys Adopt-A-Poll program. The chapter also plans to partner with the Ventura County Chapter of the League of Women Voters in hosting a candidates forum.

Delta Sigma Theta was founded in 1913 by 22 students at Howard University in Washington, D.C. The organization has more than 200,000 predominately African-American college educated women, who are members of some 900 chapters located in the United States, England, Japan, Germany, Korea, Bermuda, the Bahamas, and the Virgin Islands.

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YourNews contains stories posted by members of the public.

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