RICHMOND, Va. – Phone calls, fliers and knocking on doors – that's what thousands of volunteers are doing to get the message out to Virginians to show up at the polls on Election Day, next Tuesday. Historically, voter turnout for mid-term elections is low, especially for lower-income folks and voters of color.

Virginia Organizing phone bank volunteer Mike Howard would like to see that change. Howard, who is a middle-aged African American male, remembers a time in the not-so-distant-past when black people were not allowed to vote freely in some parts of the country.

"We didn't have a voice in America, and now that we have a voice, it gives us all a chance to be a part of the political process in the United States. A lot of countries, they don't have that, they're not afforded that right."

Kathryn Ashworth is a college junior who has been working the phones at the University of Mary Washington. She hopes her peers will show up in high numbers to vote, as they did in 2008.

"I think it's important to be excited about every election; it's a right that a lot of people have fought for, it's now a reality, and it's important to exercise that right."

volunteers will be working the phones through Tuesday to make sure voters know where their polling places are, and also ensuring that people have the necessary transportation to cast their votes.

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