Polish American Congress division to launch voter registration drive

Published: 2008-02-04

BROOKLYN, N.Y. (CNS) -- The downstate New York division of the Polish American Congress announced it will use the current presidential election year as a starting point for making sure all the Poles who recently became U.S. citizens get listed on the voter rolls. The drive will target the various ethnic communities in New York City, and also extend to Nassau and Suffolk counties, which make up Long Island, where the congress just established a chapter. Chet Szarejko, chairman of the congress's political activities committee, said the counties north of the city also will be taken into account. Since most Polish Americans are Catholic, Szarejko said he expected church leaders to encourage their parishioners to have the congress get them registered and have them participate in the American democratic process. "Many of those we'll be registering once lived under a repressive communist system the Soviet Union forced on Poland after World War II. We want to make sure they enjoy all the rights and privileges their U.S. citizenship gives them," Szarejko said in a Jan. 31 announcement.

Copyright (c) 2008 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .