Nearly two dozen students, interns and organization leaders attended the first meeting of ASU Downtown Votes 2010 on Wednesday night to start the campaign to encourage students to register to vote and participate in the November mid-term elections.
Sponsored by the Arizona Students’ Association and the Associated Students of Arizona State University Downtown, the ASU Downtown Votes 2010 campaign wants to raise awareness and voter turnout.
“We’re really trying to push student unity and student awareness for our voice to be heard as a united front,” criminal justice sophomore and ASA intern Jesica Norman said. “As a student body we want to make sure we get people excited and involved (in voting).”
The goal of the first meeting was to inform, but also to build a network to involve more people.
“Hopefully after this we’ll have lots of volunteers and a lot of people energized to help out and get students registered and out to vote in November,” ASASUD President Christian Vasquez said.
After short introductions by ASASUD and ASA leadership, attendants gathered into breakout groups of five to nine people. Not only did it allow for personal dialogue on the importance of voting, but participants found they were more productive than a traditional lecture style.
“The breakout groups get more ideas, but not so everyone’s talking over each other,” nursing sophomore Katy Becker said.
The groups brainstormed ideas for voting advocacy. Typical ideas discussed to promote voting included free t-shirts and networking through Greek life and student organizations.
However, one of the groups found a couple unique approaches to voting marketing through the use of flashlights and fax machines. Students proposed bringing numerous fax machines into Taylor Mall or the University Center lobby for out-of-town students who need birth certificates or other forms of identification to register to vote.
The group also proposed a flashlight march to “look” for unregistered voters and remind students to vote. These potential events will take place in late September or early October.
But it is not the gimmicks or fundraisers that caused students to attend the meeting.
Journalism freshman Tia Richardson is an out-of-state student who wanted more information on registration and voting in general.
“I want to vote in the next election because I’m 18 years old now, but I don’t just want to vote for someone and not know what they’re all about,” Richardson said. “I want more information.”
In addition to providing information about voter registration, the meeting also provided students with the opportunity to apply for ASA fall internships and attend the Conference of Arizona Student Leaders in late September.
Contact the reporter at crcruz1@asu.edu
