ASUO officials are hoping that their student voter registration plans will finally come to fruition after President Dave Frohnmayer officially pledged support for student voter participation.
Frohnmayer, along with representatives from college and university campuses throughout the state, signed a statement Thursday pledging “to take an active role in developing institutional strategies to engage young people in the political process and (to) do my part to get students to vote.”
The pledge was a part of a reception in the EMU Fir Room, hosted by Oregon Secretary of State Bill Bradbury, the Oregon Student Association, the New Voters Project and the Oregon Campus Compact.
New Voters Project campus organizer Terra Sorensen said the goal is to help make voter registration an ingrained part of the services offered at college institutions across the state. The New Voters Project is a grassroots campaign in Oregon, Colorado, Iowa, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin dedicated to getting as many students to vote in the November presidential elections as possible.
At the meeting, Bradbury asked that university officials reach out to each of their students about voting.
University Executive Assistant President Dave Hubin said the Office of the President relies on ASUO to come up with student voter mobilization plans.
ASUO President Maddy Melton, however, said the administration is not always behind ASUO’s efforts. She said she hopes Frohnmayer’s formal pledge will translate into more consistent support for ASUO’s ideas for voter registration.
“There are a few things that are quick and efficient, if only the administration would allow us access to them,” Melton said.
Melton said ASUO wants to get representatives in every classroom and every residence hall to talk about voter registration and participation and possibly do outreach at the University bookstore. ASUO would also like well-frequented University offices to train employees about talking to students about voter registration.
These efforts reach the most amount of students in the simplest way, she said.
Melton added that ASUO needs administrative cooperation to register high numbers of students to vote even though the University has a long history of getting students involved in voting. She said the administration often says no to ASUO staff’s ideas about getting students registered to vote.
“They need to start saying yes,” she said.
In addition to asking University officials to design a plan for voter mobilization, Bradbury requested that they send a letter to faculty and staff in support of any voter organization efforts and that they appoint a liaison to county elections offices to help smooth the student voter registration process.
The deadline to register to vote in the November presidential elections is Oct. 12, giving the University only a few weeks to get students registered after classes begin in the fall. Given that tight deadline, final voter registration plans will need to be in place within the next several months, Hubin said.
Hubin said Frohnmayer will follow through with Bradbury’s requests in one way or another.
He said the University already has a close relationship with the Lane County Elections office and always sends a message of support for student voter registration to faculty and staff, though it is usually in the form of a telephone message and not a letter.
“I think that there is a strong belief on our part that being engaged in a civic manner is part of being an educated person,” he said.