With the 2008 presidential election about a month away and the voter registration deadline Monday, Oct. 6 students everywhere are scrambling to get involved. Whether voting for Democratic candidate Sen. Barack Obama or Republican candidate Sen. John McCain, VCU students want their voices to be heard.
“Of course I am registered to vote,” said Tiffany George, an exercise science major. “I registered to vote on VCU’s campus my freshman year in 2005. I am always trying to encourage my friends to get registered too.”
Many students are showing a surge of enthusiasm by registering at the DMV, in high schools and on university campuses throughout the nation.
Organizations such as Progressive Future, a non-partisan organization, have volunteers standing on many locations around campuses trying to get students involved.
“We have already registered over 300,000 young voters nation wide,” said Nicole McCann, campus organizer for Progressive Future. “I think that young voters are realizing that they can make a huge impact in this election.”
Volunteers have been canvassing VCU’s campus daily trying to get students registered for the upcoming election.
“I was walking to class and I heard someone yell, ‘Are you registered to vote?’ ” said Eboni Glaze, a criminal justice major. “I told the girl I had already applied for an absentee ballot and never received it, so she helped me change my address in order to be able to vote in Richmond.”
General Registrar of Richmond J. Kirk Showalter stated in an e-mail, “Students whose legal residence is somewhere other than where they go to college can register in that locality and vote in the upcoming election by absentee ballot.”
The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Oct. 28 and the ballots must be sent in by Nov. 4.
Showalter also said students who decide their legal residence is their address at school will have to go to the polls on Election Day to vote.
Some students, such as business major Marquis Flood, who are not registered in Richmond and do not want to vote absentee are going to make a trip home on Election Day.
“I want to be at the polls casting my vote personally,” Flood said. “I am going back home to Newport News to vote.”
Students who need more assistance with voter registration should visit www.sbe.state.va.us.