Offering clothes to the drunken members of a bachelorette party was not an anticipated method of registering voters for sophomore Benji Whatley. Along with fellow biker,Mike Sowiski, Whatley parted with a sock for the male blow-up doll the women were carrying and in exchange, the party added their names to the growing list of registered voters.

“We won’t go to extremes, but we are willing to have a good time in order to encourage people,” Whatley said.

Four Oberlin alumni and one current student are participating in Bike for Democracy, a non-partisan cross-country bike ride starting in Portland, Ore. and ending in the nation’s capitol.

The group, consisting of Sowiski, project coordinator from the class of 2003, Brianna Cayo Cotter,’03, project organizer, Marian Runk ’03, Rosa W. Goldberg ’03,and Whatley set out on Aug. 12 in an attempt to inform and register underrepresented people in the upcoming presidential election.

They will primarily focus on groups who are least likely to vote, including young people, people of color and people of low income.

Tailgating parties have also been an area to register more people. Whatley related an afternoon that the riders randomly rode into a parking lot full of cars and successfully convinced people to sign up on the trunks of their cars.

Swing states in the election, such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, will prove to be important centers of attention for these few months.

Bike for Democracy was officially started in November 2003 by a group of young adults hoping to creatively reach the public and increase voter registration.

“We know that only one-third of young people voted in 2000, that young people’s voices and concerns are not being heard and that we want to be a part of changing that,” Cotter said.

More riders will join the trip who are not affiliated with Oberlin College.

“We don’t want people to think of us as a school project,” said Whatley.

“Today we registered about 160 people,” he related as they visited three college campuses and an area high school in Fargo, North Dakota. He also said that many voters are misinformed, such as an ex-felon looking to register who had been told by state officials that people with criminal records did not maintain the right to vote.

“It was a very powerful experience for us to see how happy he was when he heard he could vote,” Whatley said.

A typical day will include national radio spots, meals with member of the community, traveling in the area for registrations, even walking through tailgating parties.

According to the website, “The slower pace means that we will be able to spend time in smaller locales often overlooked by urban voter projects.”

Thus far they have biked 1,500 miles, usually traveling 75-100 miles over the course of a week, crossing mountains and plains with headwinds up to 30 or 40 miles per hour.

“It convinces people how important voting is to me, and us, by putting forth the effort to reach them,” Whatley said.

Throughout this ride, the group is documenting the journey on the website’s LiveJournal Rider’s Blog, assisting various other voter mobilization projects and promoting publicity. The group will be arriving on Oberlin’s campus on Oct. 7 for a few days to work in Lorain County.