Students stump for voting

Kayla Webley
2004-10-01
The Daily

Time to register to vote in November's election is running out.

This school year, members of the UW Vote Coalition have pulled together a campaign called New Voter Registration, which is designed to get freshmen and unregistered upperclassmen signed up in time to vote.

Tomorrow is the last day to send in mail-in registration forms to be eligible to vote in the November 2 election.

Worried about the lack of a student vote, WashPIRG, the Interfraternity Council, Panhellenic, Residence Hall Student Association, Graduate Programs, First Year Programs, College Republicans, Young Democrats, the Minority Think Tank and MeCha have teamed up to form the UW Vote Coalition.

The UW Vote Coalition is trying to raise voter registration on campus by 5 percent, which means adding 5,000 new voters to the crowd.

Of youth age 18 to 24, only 36 percent voted in the last presidential election, compared with the 70 percent of senior citizens who voted in the same election.

"The idea is that the problem is that politicians don't talk about and campaign with issues that really affect us as youth, the 18 to 24-year-old block of people," said Sally Hamilton, WashPIRG student chapter chair.

Hamilton thinks politicians only discuss issues relating to older generations because these generations give the most votes.

"(Politicians) only talk about things like Social Security and Medicare and that's because so little of youth vote. They are not going to talk about issues that are pertinent to the youth if they are not going to give them votes," said Hamilton.

The idea behind the New Voter Registration campaign is to have enough youth voters so that politicians will need to talk about youth issues.

"The solution is that we are going to make them pay attention to us," said Hamilton.

Each group that is a part of the UW Vote Coalition is hosting different events and campaigns to get more voters signed up.

In order to reach its goal of 1,000 new voters, WashPIRG members are talking to students in two different ways.

"The way our 1,000 goal is set up, is that fifty-five percent of that is going to come from class wraps, which are three to five minute presentations at the beginning of classes where we hand out voter registration forms. We are doing 46 class wraps in three days," said Hamilton. "Forty-five percent will come from tabling, which is what we are doing by walking around with clipboards or at a table."

The Young Democrats at the UW (YDUW) have also been holding events such as a dunk tank, called "Dunk Dick Cheney" and a speech by U.S. Senator Jim McDermott to prompt voter registration.

"We are trying to work with all the other groups to register as many voters," said Brendan Levy, president of YDUW. "Because with registration on campus you are registering like nine liberals to every one conservative. So increasing registration is to our benefit."

Likewise, the UW College Republicans feel their involvement in the voter registration process will help further their own ideals.

"I think that young people are pretty supportive of the Republican agenda, so it is great to see people get involved in the process," said Nick Dayton, College Republican president.

Still, the voting campaign has another role once voter registration is over.

"Voter registration is the first part of the new voter registration project. The second half is the 'get out the vote,'" said Hamilton. "We are having people fill out these pledge-to-vote-in-2004 cards with their name and phone number. So everyone that signed those cards, we are going to call them a couple of days before the election, remind them to vote and tell them their polling information."

If you miss the Oct. 2 deadline to send in voter registration, you can still register to vote by Oct. 17 at the King County Administration Office.



WHERE TO REGISTER TO VOTE

- All fraternities

- All sororities

- ASUW info booth

- WashPIRG office

- ASUW office

- Office of Government Relations

- Office of every residence hall

- South Campus Center

- HUB info desk

- Any table by the HUB that has a sign saying, "Register to vote here" (all UW coalition members and some other tables).