Voter registration deadline is just around the corner

The Oct. 11 voter registration deadline is just a few days away, and many organizations are eagerly trying to register VCU students who want to get involved.

David Solimini is the communications director for Virginia 21, a statewide young voter advocacy group. VCU’s Virginia 21 chapter incorporates technology into older voter registration techniques.

“We have folks knocking on dorm doors, and people e-mailing their friends,” Solimini said. “Next week we’re having an AOL Instant Messenger campaign day on Thursday where we’re going to have all of our campus leaders send messages to their IM lists.

“If you’re running around campus, you forget. So online tools are really the best way to go.”

The Internet has made the actual voter registration process easier. Students who can’t make it to a registration location during office hours can access an online PDF version of the voter registration application at the Virginia 21 Web site.

“It’s a fully completed PDF version of the form the state requires and you can print it out or save it,” Solimini said. “It also tells you where to vote, so if you live in Fairfax but go to VCU, it tells you where to send it.”

Although some students do not vote because they don’t think they can make a difference, Solimini said it is important that students participate so politicians start paying attention to the things that matter to students.

“(It’s important that) our facilities are up-to-date and our degrees are worth something,” he said. “That’s why this is such a critical time for Virginia voters right now. If we go and vote, politicians will realize (they) have to address these issues.”

Ben Winters is an organizer for the VCU chapter of the New Voters Project — a student-run interest group that concentrates on student issues like higher education and lowering tuition costs.

“College students vote one-third as much as older people, so politicians don’t really pay that much attention to them when they are running their campaigns,” Winters said. “We’re just students who are interested in getting people registered across campus.

“Last year, voter turnout went up 11 percent nationwide, so we’re looking to keep that going. We think 70 percent of students around here are registered in general.”

Winters got involved in the New Voters Project while attending a college in New York that was directly affected by a politician’s funding decision.

“I used to go to a school in New York, and a couple of years ago they raised tuition because politicians said there was not enough money in the budget for it, which was pretty rough on a lot of my friends,” Winters said. “They then gave a subsidy to the beer and soda industry for the same amount of funding that was cut for state schools, and that’s the kind of thing that happens when students aren’t voting or paying attention.”

Are you registered to vote?

The deadline for voter registration is Oct. 11. For Richmond, registration packets must be postmarked by 5 p.m. and addressed to PO Box 61037 Richmond, VA 23261-1037. If you are registered outside Richmond and intend to vote, you can either change your registration to a Richmond address or make plans to go home on Election Day.
For more information or to volunteer and help others register, visit the New Voters Project table in Commons Plaza from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Thursday, Friday, Monday or Tuesday.
You can find out more about voting in Virginia by visiting Virginia 21’s Web site at www.virginia21.org.

Veronica Turner, an 18-year-old biology major, also volunteers for VCU’s New Voters Project chapter.

Turner said she likes volunteering her time to serve others and thinks registering people to vote is a great way to get involved.

“Within 10 minutes I’ve gotten two people,” she said.

Turner volunteers for one hour at a time and said she hopes that during her hour she can register 10 people.

“I feel that a lot of us (students) don’t know about voting,” she said. “Often times people want to vote but don’t know how.

“We voice out the information and give them a little push to vote.”

Turner cited another reason students should exercise their right to vote.

“I believe it is very important that students voice their opinions because we were used to having our parents make the decisions,” she said. “Now we are at the age where we should voice our own opinions.”

Students who are interested in registering to vote can find tables around campus to sign up. Students who reside in Richmond can also go to the Department of Motor Vehicles, Richmond’s Office of the General Registrar at City Hall or many other local and state social service agencies.

Many students use absentee ballots to vote for races taking place in their home community, but they must be registered to vote in order to use an absentee ballot.

Absentee ballots must be requested at least one week before an election takes place, and typically ballots must be received 10 days after the election day.