Student organizations lead early voting effort on campus
Students encouraged to participate in Super Tuesday
Issue date: 2/1/08
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 Voters
cast their 2008 primary ballots at the Memorial Union. Other voting
locations include the Davis Senior Citizens Center and Yolo County
Clerks office.
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In
an effort to enhance voter turnout, Yolo County Clerks Office had set
up four Yolo County polling locations where voters have until 4 p.m.
today to cast their 2008 primary ballots early.
The locations
include West Sacramento Fire Department, Davis Senior Citizens Center,
Yolo County Clerks Office and in the UCD Memorial Union next to the
Post Office.
Early voting was established in Yolo County for the
first time in the 2005 gubernatorial primary, said Freddie Oakley, Yolo
County clerk. Participation at the Memorial Union is being organized by
a collaboration of the Graduate Students Association (GSA), ASUCD and
CalPIRG, which have collectively helped promote the event on campus.
The ballots are administered by professionals appointed by the Yolo
County clerk's office.
Oakley said the main purpose of early voting is "just removing barriers to participating in elections, for convenience sake."
The
voting started slowly Monday, recording 16 voters, but improved to 22
on Tuesday, and by Wednesday over 70 voted according to Gerald
Peterson, Yolo County clerk inspector in charge of the MU wing of the
operation. Peterson is optimistic about an increasing number of voters
as super Tuesday approaches.
On the student side the event has
been spearheaded by Brent Laabs, GSA external chair, who secured the
ASUCD storeroom after being turned down for locations in the Griffin
Lounge and ASUCD Coffee House. Laabs states that one of the major roles
of the booth apart from balloting is to "direct people and give them
options and information about voting."
Involvement of student
groups is part of an effort to mobilize voters aged 18 to 25, known as
the New Voters Project which was initiated nationwide by student PIRGs
in 2003, according to its website.
"The more students involved
in the electoral process, the more likely candidates are to address
major student issues like more affordable education, specifically
developing adequate financial aid programs and confronting the corrupt
textbook industry, " said Tracey Zeng, NVP campaigning coordinator and
ASUCD senator.
In the week preceding the early voting, CalPIRG
was able to register 1,193 people to vote, said Margaret Howe, campus
organizer for CalPIRG.
"The attitude that [students'] votes
don't count seems to be disappearing," said Howe, whose next step after
Super Tuesday is to "prepare for November, break records and get
politicians talking about youth issues and visiting campuses."
Election
activities on campus will come to a peak Tuesday when ASUCD, in
conjunction with CalPIRG, will host a "carnival" on the Quad from noon
to 2 p.m. featuring politically oriented games like "whack the
politician" and "clean the dirty politician".
CHARLES HINRIKSSON can be reached at campus@californiaaggie.com.
© Copyright 2008 The California Aggie
