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Vote-mobile rolls its way into Frisco
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Toni
Wallace, left, from San Francisco and Cory Mervis, right, from New York
City, traveled through Summit County Wednesday trying to get people to
register to vote. Their path across the country is spelling the word,
"Vote."
Summit Daily/Ryan Slabaugh
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JULIE SUTOR
August 18, 2004
FRISCO - The eagle has landed.
Democracy
enthusiasts Toni Wallace and Cory Mervis arrived beak-first in Frisco
on Wednesday in a school bus they had converted into a
raptor-emblazoned vote-mobile.
The pair is traversing the country this summer in hopes of motivating thousands of Americans to register and vote.
"I'm not a political activist," Mervis said. "But
after hearing the statistics on how few people vote in this country, I
wanted to go out and register people and get them excited about this
election."
Mervis said that her hometown of New York City is
buzzing about the 2004 presidential election, especially since the city
is playing host to the upcoming Republican National Convention.
"We
didn't need to be in New York. We need to be out on the farms and at
the quickie-marts and truck stops," she said, wearing an oversized
Uncle Sam hat.
Mervis recruited about 50 New York-area artists to
decorate her bald eagle bus inside and out. Swirls of red, white, blue
and silver adorn the eagle's belly, which is filled with hundreds of
signs, voter registration forms, pamphlets and questionnaires.
The
bus set off from New York on July 22, and is tracing the word "vote"
across the country along 10,000 miles of American highway.
Mervis urged those who have been turned off by politics to re-engage this November.
"Don't even watch the TV ads. Get to a public
library, get on the Internet, look at the candidates' records. Take
this seriously and educate yourself. The simple act of voting is one of
the most powerful actions we can take," Mervis added.
Julie Sutor can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 203, or at jsutor@summitdaily.com.
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