Carolyn Mark, president of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women, speaks at the Voice Your Vote news conference yesterday.

The Providence Journal / Steve Szydlowski

PROVIDENCE — More than 20 million single women did not vote in the 2004 election, including 83,000 unmarried women in Rhode Island. Voice Your Vote, a group of nonpartisan community organizations, wants to erase those numbers.

Representatives of those organizations yesterday held a news conference to promote a series of public radio and television announcements now hitting the airwaves encouraging women to exercise their right to vote.

The announcements feature several Hollywood actresses, including Felicity Huffman, Rosario Dawson and Regina King, who call attention to the potential voting power of women. One of the announcements features women chatting about “my first time,” but the subject is voting, not sex.

Meghan Purvis, coordinator of the local Voice Your Vote group, says the announcement needs to be “edgy” to draw attention to a serious problem.

Carolyn Mark, president of the Rhode Island chapter of the National Organization for Women, said, “This group of unmarried women is among the largest and fastest growing segments of our population. Together women have amazing voting power. We need to talk about issues that inspire all women to use that power.”

Mark said many unmarried women don’t vote because they feel they don’t know enough about the issues and candidates and don’t have time to learn.

The organizations of RINOW and Voice Your Vote, along with volunteers of Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships, are reaching out to women between now and the Nov. 7 election, encouraging more women to vote.

Hundreds of volunteers of the three groups are going door-to-door in several communities urging women to vote. Purvis said the volunteers are targeting the communities of Providence, Pawtucket, Woonsocket, Central Falls, Newport and East Providence.