By JUDITH KOHLER

Associated Press Writer

DENVER (AP) The Rev. Al Sharpton said Monday that he and other civil rights leaders are kicking off a campaign to register voters in seven key states.

Sharpton said during a gathering at a Denver restaurant that the Democratic National Convention, where Barack Obama will become the first black nominee of a major U.S. party, is just a start.

He said the civil rights organization National Action Network and others will begin in Florida, then travel to six other states to register voters and make sure people who think they're registered actually are. Other states the ``Not This Time'' campaign will target are Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Alabama.

``We are coming out of here dealing with voter protection and voter registration,'' Sharpton said. ``We're going to send people into key states in mid-September to go into churches and community centers and have people give us their names to check their registration so that we don't wait until Election Day and find out they're not registered.''

Sharpton said the campaign is called ``Not This Time'' because the intent is to prevent a repeat of the voting debacle of Florida in 2000, as well as the voting problems that were reported in Ohio in 2004. George W. Bush was victorious in both cases.

``We feel they robbed the election in 2000 in Florida, but not this time,'' Sharpton said. ``We feel they robbed the election in Ohio in 2004, not this time.''

People are signing up to help to register voters and check voter rolls, Sharpton added. The National Action Network will work with the National Urban League, the Southern Christian Leadership Council and the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN.

The Rev. Dr. Freddie Haynes of the Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas, who is on the board of National Action Network, said, ``We're going to go to sites all around this nation ensuring that our vote is protected, that justice is protected, because as happy as we are about what is going down this week, this week is just a kickoff of justice taking place.''