A group of community leaders in Arizona have banded together to launch a voter drive ahead of the November election. The non-partisan project, called Out the Vote, has focused on recruiting voters at bars, churches and other LGBT gathering places.

“The gay community is not just made up of gay people. There are business owners and family and friends,” project organizer Annie Loyd told The Arizona Republic. “We have the opportunity to educate many people from many different walks of life – Democrats, Republicans, business owners, young people – about the importance of voting and getting registered to vote.”

The general election is particularly important in the fall this year, as every seat in the state legislature is up for grabs as are several Congressional seats.

The Republic reports:

In recent weeks, Out the Vote organizers have been dropping by Phoenix bars and nightclubs such as the Rock, Homme and Cash Inn Country, and gay-friendly churches like Healing Waters Community Fellowship and Casa de Cristo Evangelical Church.

Their main focus is not to register bar customers and church worshippers themselves. Rather, organizers have been providing voter-education materials and training to bar owners and church leaders so they, in turn, can sign up those who walk through their doors.

Out the Vote was present last week at a Jell-O Wrestling contest at Charlie’s Phoenix, a country-Western gay bar. And they’ll have several of their people at this weekend’s Pride in the Pines Festival in Flagstaff. An Out the Vote gala is planned for Aug. 16 at the Wrigley Mansion.

At www.outthevote.us, the group provides information about Arizona voter eligibility, polling locations and links to Web sites where people can register to vote.

Joe Gonzales, owner of the Rock at Seventh Avenue and Indian School Road, said in the coming weeks his nightclub plans to host weekly voter-registration drives, fundraisers and barbecues to promote Out the Vote.

“It’s very important to provide a venue, a stable and stationary place, for people to register to vote,” said Gonzales, who has been attending weekly Out the Vote meetings at Community Church of Hope next to his business. “In our community, people need a place they can go where they are comfortable.”