WATERLOO - The 2000 presidential race in Iowa was decided by less than 4,200 votes out of more than 1.2 million cast.

An Iowa-based citizen advocacy group is trying to figure mightily into that picture on behalf of the downtrodden, by registering 10,000 voters by the general election - including voters in Waterloo.

The Iowa Citizen Action Network Education Foundation brought its voter-registration, voter-turnout drive to Waterloo last week, seeking local organizers for the effort. It's an offshoot of 25-year-old ICAN and a new endeavor for the organization, which has previously been involved in clean-energy and Medicare/Medicaid reform.

"We're expanding our horizons to a civic engagement project; it's the first of its kind for us, starting at the grass-roots level," said John Campbell of the ICAN Education Foundation. He conducted an introductory session on the organization's "ICAN Vote" campaign Thursday at the East Side Ministerial Alliance community center.

"As far as ICAN, it's been an ongoing desire for us to build, within communities of color, a grass-roots effort to engage in the political process. I don't think it was just because of this election. Certainly we want to register people for the 2004 general election, but I would think it could be an ongoing dialog and structure in communities for change - coalition building within communities of color, labor organizations and other progressive groups."

Voter participation may be more of an issue than registration in Iowa, Campbell said. "Generally 40 percent (turnout) in an election in Iowa is considered good. Nationally we do around that in general elections. That's abysmal," he said. "The United States ranks with Columbia and a few other Third World countries in the amount of voter participation."

The focus is not just the 2004 general election, Campbell said. "Participation means local election, it means state election, it means the issues that impact people's lives every day. We're not trying to decide the issues for the people. If you give people the education as to what's going on and how to impact the system, they'll come up with their own decisions.

"Why I'm meeting with people here in Waterloo is it's your community. I want to work with your community and want people from your community to run this project." They're looking for an election canvass staff.

"We're also looking for volunteers and participation" through established organizations such as churches and labor unions. "It'll can a door-to-door effort," he said or targeted to areas of low voter turnout or low voter registration. "We can provide the resources to reach those people."

The 2000 election may have been a "turning point" that could ignite voter participation, because "you had a president that was decided by the Supreme Court as opposed to the electorate," Campbell said, with the election so close that it was decided by the high court's resolution of an election dispute in Florida.

Increased voter registration and participation can help bring insufficiently addressed issues to the fore, Campbell said.

"The drug addition, incarceration rate of African-Americans, particularly in Iowa, and the high unemployment for youth and the overall populace of the African-American community has not changed under the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. And the only way we're going to impact them and say these are (prevailing) issues to our community is to register to vote, participate in the process and let them know their jobs or their role in government is to serve us and that we're watching and we're taking part."

Individuals interested in participating in the ICAN Vote effort may contact Campbell at (515) 277-5077, Ext. 13, or at jcampbell@iowacan.org, or access the organizations Web site, www.iowacan.org.