With the help of some high-profile Oregon representatives such as Peter DeFazio, D-Eugene, the ASUO signed up 250 students in its voter registration campaign, which ended last week.
It may not seem like that big of a number, but it’s a huge difference compared to the single-digit numbers posted by other Oregon public schools, such as Oregon State University.
“We tooled them,” ASUO Vice President Mitra Anoushiravani said at the April 26 Student Senate meeting.
But the spring campaign to register students for the November election is only a precursor to the upcoming fall registration campaign, organized by the Oregon Student Association. It has a goal of registering 27,500 college and university students and an extra 5,000 non-college youth before elections begin.
“In the fall, it’s going to be huge,” OSA spokesman John Wykoff said. “It’s probably our No. 1 priority.”
ASUO Federal Affairs Coordinator Robin Miller, who helped organize the spring campaign at the University, said extra organization and help from Oregon Reps. DeFazio; Vicki Walker, D-Eugene; and Floyd Prozanski, D-Eugene, and State Sen. Tony Corcoran, D-Cottage Grove, led to the high showing.
“We just had people out there,” she said.
But Miller added that while 250 registered students may seem like a lot compared to some of the other schools, she was hoping for more.
“We faced the obstacle that students aren’t thinking about voting right now … it slips to the wayside,” she said.
She said the ASUO is getting ready for the big fall push and, among other ideas, is working on a campaign to send a registration card to every University student, and she is confident the ASUO can meet its goal of 5,000 registered students by Oct. 15.
Wykoff said the OSA is also planning some events. He said that most of them will be straight voter registration campaigns instead of concerts or events where a registration booth is set up as well. He said a more expensive concert usually produces fewer voters than a campaign where voter registration is the primary goal.
“It’s not as sexy, but it produces a lot more registered voters,” Wykoff said.