Cupid, young lovers and bitter singles have a new companion this year — the voter virgin.
University students are being invited to declare that they, like thousands of other 18- to 24-year-olds, have never voted and are being asked to register to vote as part of the Love Your Vote campaign.
The campaign — organized by the New Voters Project, the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and VoterVirgin — will take over the EMU Amphitheater today from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering temporary tattoos, stickers, T-shirts and candy as an incentive to get students registered to vote.
The event is one of nearly 40 voter registration rallies that are scheduled to take place around the country based on the Valentine’s Day-related theme of Love Your Vote.
“It’s light-hearted and fun,” said Terra Sorensen, the organizer of the Eugene rally. “I feel like there’s so much talk about voting as a civic duty and a responsibility. It can be something that’s engaging.”
Portland, Salem, Ashland and Corvallis are also hosting Love Your Vote events, as well as distant cities like Orlando, Fla., and Des Moines, Iowa. Rock the Vote, MTV’s Chose or Lose campaign and the World Wrestling Entertainment’s Smackdown Your Vote! are also recognizing the events.
Sorensen, who works for the New Voters Project, says the campaign is trying to get young voters interested and involved in voting by connecting the romance of democracy with the romance of Valentine’s Day.
She said she hopes to get 50 people registered to vote today.
Graduate student Emily Hirsch, 24, said the New Voter Project got her involved in activism for the first time.
“For my undergraduate studies I never really got involved with anything and I wanted to change that,” she said. “This seemed like a good opportunity.”
She said she’s been spreading the word about the Love Your Vote campaign, concerned that young people feel like their votes don’t count.
“We’ve seen with the last presidential election that isn’t true,” she said. “I think people are starting to realize that.”
Hirsch said she expects today’s events to be a lot of fun.
“It’s a new way to do it,” she said. “I think more peer-to-peer contact is important. Really it just seems like no one is asking young people to vote.”
The New Voter Campaign spans Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin and aims to register more than 1 million young people before the November election, according to its Web site.
“This is a big campaign basically building up to the presidential election,” Sorensen said.
According to the project, there are more than 28 million eligible voters between 18 and 24. Sorenson said that group could be a powerful force if it made the effort to vote, but its interests are rarely addressed by politicians.
“I really believe that would happen if that age group voted in a high percentage,” she said. “I’m excited to see it happen.”