College students encouraged to register to vote

By From UWire reports

"Voting is perhaps the most important responsibility of being an engaged citizen," President Paul Locatelli, S.J., wrote in an e-mail to students this week.

Students at other universities are hearing the same thing.

Twenty-six states and the District of Columbia have voter registration deadlines on or before Friday, October 10th - which is less than two weeks away.

Though student groups on both ends of the political spectrum are more involved in this election than ever before, the emphasis on voter registration efforts seems to be largely on the part of the College Democrats and Students for Barack Obama.

Dan Reilly, a sophomore at Providence College who is involved with the College Republicans on campus, said that the group is involved in voter registration to a certain extent, but also pointed out that since college students tend to be overwhelmingly liberal, "generally getting people registered doesn't help our party."

The situation is similar at the University of Texas at Austin, where the University Democrats, as part of a major voter registration effort, initiated a movement to have all students in the dorms registered to vote. They took their case to the Department of Housing on campus, and were allowed unprecedented access to every resident.

"The University of Texas has never allowed voter registration cards to be distributed in the dorms," said Andy Jones, the communications director for University Democrats. "People who lived in the dorms went to the dorms they live in and put voter registration cards under doors, 'guerilla-style.' This was frowned on by the university. Yet this year, UT has allowed us to distribute 10,800 cards [one for every student who lives on campus] in the dorms."

Despite this major push by student groups to register young voters on college campuses across the country, not all groups agree on the best place for students to register.

At the University of California, Davis, the College Democrats have placed their focus mainly on getting students to vote by mail rather than to vote at their current address on campus.

At the University of Pennsylvania, however, the Penn Democrats and UPenn for Obama stress the importance of registering to vote on campus, both because it's easier than having to figure out each state's voting rules, and because Pennsylvania is one of several critical states that could very well determine the outcome of the election.

Students are receiving the same message at the University of Colorado at Boulder. The state of Colorado is in serious play for the first time in years. Since both parties are campaigning hard in the state, College Democrats President Jesse Jensen said that voter registration has been concentrated on getting students to register in Colorado.

And at George Washington University in the District of Columbia, where to register is really left up to each individual.

The GW Democrats use a voter registration Web site, voteforchange.com, to register students on campus.

The site, set up by the Obama campaign, has information about rules and deadlines for every state so that students can register either in D.C. or in their home state. When students stop by the GW Democrats' table on campus, they can use a computer set up at the table to register and ask questions.

According to Gordon, GW's student groups aim to register 100 percent of eligible students on campus by the Oct. 6 deadline.

Students on both sides of the political aisle said, voting is the important thing, not where a student is registered.

"It doesn't matter to us where students vote," said Erica Pederson, communications director for the Young Democrats at Arizona State University. "Although we do try to push students voting in Arizona because then they can vote for our local candidates, we are just encouraging them to vote, period."

The huge push for voter registration this fall means increased participation-- but also an increased chance that issues will arise.

Political organizations on campus are keeping their eyes open for allegations of fraud or complications that could occur in the final days and weeks of registration.

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