Free Records and Phone Squads Drive Voter Registration Rush in Norwood-October 1, 1964

Town hall officials experienced a frantic late-minute rush of residents registering to vote yesterday and today, with officials reporting new voters streaming in at a rate of roughly one a minute. While last-minute registration is a familiar annual hustle, town spokesmen admitted that a novel giveaway program might have provided the necessary push: “They’re coming in at the rate of one a minute. Maybe the records have something to do with it.”

“Just For The Record” Campaign

The hit-making voter drive was the brainchild of George Hayes, a new member of the Norwood Democratic Town Committee living at 78 Pellana Road. Hayes, who spent years in the music industry as a retail sales manager on the East Coast, hit upon the idea of offering free hit records by popular artists as an added inducement for residents to register.

The strategy required voters to make a firm commitment. “We needed more than the promise of registration, we wanted everyone to make a decision as to when they would register,” Hayes explained. The pitch delivered over the phone went simply: “If you’ll tell us when you’ll register, we’ll have your record ready for you.”

The discs themselves were donated directly from Hayes’s extensive personal collection amassed during his music business career.

What makes the successful campaign even more remarkable is that Hayes cooked up and executed the entire operation from a hospital bed. While recovering in traction at Norwood Hospital from a back injury, the 42-year-old insurance special agent used his bedside telephone to launch the “Just For The Record” drive.

Late last Friday afternoon, Hayes called Town Hall and discovered to his disappointment that only 130 persons had registered. Undaunted, he swung into action. By the time he returned home to Pellana Road, a massive grassroots telephone squad was in full swing.

A Townwide Telephone Network

Assigned as chairman of the registration drive, Hayes organized nine district captains covering each of Norwood’s voting districts. Backed by six to eight telephone callers per district, the squad placed roughly 1,500 calls urging residents to add their names to the voter list in exchange for a popular record.

The dedicated district telephone captains included John Flaherty, Francis Lose, Mrs. Emma Sansone, Mrs. Charlotte LeBanc, Robert MacEachern, Edward _niewski, James McHugh, Mrs. Mary J. Fox, and John V. Sherry. The grassroots effort was further supported by Democratic senatorial candidate Robert Murphy of Westwood, alongside representative candidates David Ahearn and William Butters, both of Norwood.

With the registration deadline fast approaching, the Board of Registrars announced extended hours: open tonight from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m., and tomorrow—the final deadline—from 8:30 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Archival Note: This article has been dynamically reconstructed from the original public record print archives of the Patriot Ledger