State government representatives and ASUO members took to the campus streets Monday afternoon, inviting students to have their voices heard by registering to vote.
Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, State Sen. Tony Corcoran and Reps. Vicki Walker and Floyd Prozanski joined with ASUO President Wylie Chen and other student government members Monday afternoon on the corner of 13th Avenue and University Street for about 15 minutes, encouraging students to sign voter registration cards.
“If you’re not registered and you can’t vote, someone else is going to determine your future,” DeFazio said.
In recent years, people between the ages of 18 and 34 have traditionally had the lowest national voter turnout. The low numbers have been a cause of growing concern for both elected officials and students alike.
The ASUO’s goal is to get an additional 5,000 students registered in time for the fall elections. This is in conjunction with a statewide goal of 27,000 additional registered voters.
“Right now the message is out there — and it’s been out there for a long time — that says students don’t vote,” said Brian Tanner, one of the volunteers who helped register students on Monday. “We’re looking to change that trend. We want people to know that we’re not apathetic, that we are concerned about our community and the voting process, and we do vote.”
During the 15-minute stretch Monday, the officials and students set out to harness in student voters for the May 16 primary. The deadline to register for next month’s election is today.
Prozanski donned one of the yellow T-shirts worn by the student volunteers that read “Express yourself: Vote,” while DeFazio patiently pointed students through the registration form.
Walker, especially, approached the task with enthusiasm. Introducing herself as the students’ state representative, she was animated as she got in the students’ faces and followed them down the street while persuading them to register to vote.
The visit by DeFazio and the other public officials is just one part of an overall attempt by the ASUO to increase student participation in statewide and national elections. Since the beginning of spring term, and especially for the past two weeks, student government leaders have been spearheading efforts to increase the number of registered students who will then vote.
The voter registration drive truly kicked into gear the last two weeks, with volunteers standing on the streets Wednesday through Friday, signing up students to vote. They’ve also been visiting Greek houses around campus with the same goal in mind.
“Voting registration among the student population is an extremely pressing issue,” ASUO Federal Affairs Coordinator Robin Miller said. “Clearly students have the power to be a strong voting bloc on state, local and national issues.”
The numbers matter. In the 1996 Senate special elections, the decision was locked by just about 20,000 votes. With 120,000 students enrolled in Oregon colleges and universities, ASUO State Affairs Coordinator Arlie Adkins said that if students could just come out in large numbers, they could make a real difference.
“But that’s not going to happen until students start to use the clout that people around the world are dying to get,” DeFazio said. “That is, the vote.”
Corcoran explained how student votes will affect the upcoming elections in the fall. There are a few initiatives coming up on the fall ballot that would drastically affect students at the higher education level. The initiatives would cut education spending overall, but because there is a lot of opposition to hurting students in K-12, most of the cuts would affect post-secondary education.
“In politics in general, we’ve just seen a gradual decline in voter participation,” Corcoran said. “That’s actually a strategy of the extreme right all over the U.S. to drive down voter participation because that simply gives more power to those who are left to vote.”