By Travis Gettys
Enquirer contributor

Are you:

• At least 18 years old?

• A U.S. citizen?

• A resident of Kentucky for at least 28 days?

• Not a convicted felon?

If you answered "yes" to each of those questions, you're qualified to vote this November in Kentucky, and there are plenty of people who want to help you register.

Nationally, rapper P. Diddy launched Project Change this year to encourage young people and minorities to vote, and Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan registration drive, has signed up new voters since 1990.

Josh Baker, owner of Mammoth Coffee in Newport, said he was inspired by Rock the Vote to offer a free cup of coffee to anyone who registers to vote or updates his voter registration at his Monmouth Street business.

One of Baker's regular customers, Jennifer Pugh, is director of community development at Brighton Center, and she brought him brochures and voter registration cards to pass out.

Baker said filling out a voter registration card at a coffee shop can be more relaxing than going to the county clerk's office, and he said most of the new voters paid for their coffee anyway.

"I'm not trying to sway votes at all," Baker said. "I'm more concerned about the number of people who aren't voting - particularly young people."

"That's a bad habit to start," he added.

Eleven new voters have registered since last week, Baker said, and quite a few people have updated their registration, like employee Alex Rice.

"This is going to be my first (presidential) election," said Rice, 20, who moved to Newport from Edgewood this year.

"It's a big one, too, which makes it more thrilling for me," she added.

More people sign up to vote in presidential elections, said Campbell County Clerk Jack Snodgrass, but he's seen more new registrations this year than in the past.

"There was a rush of people signing up to vote after the Democratic convention was on television," said Snodgrass, who predicts this year's contest will top the 74 percent turnout of the 2000 election.

Elections in other years typically draw 35 percent to 38 percent of registered voters, Snodgrass said.

Snodgrass and Rick Riddell, director of voting registration for the Boone County board of elections, both said they've handed out a large number of registration forms this year to groups that hope to sign up new voters.

A steady stream of new voters have signed up in Boone County since the end of the last school year, Riddell said, when teachers began dropping off students' forms.