Late ballots are as troublesome for students as gearing up for
the last hairy weeks of the quarter.
“Last year, I got it and had to turn it in the next
day,” said Heather Johnston, a first-year marine biology
student.
Johnston, a Colorado resident, votes via absentee ballot. She
has yet to receive her absentee ballot for today’s
election.
Since most college students live away from home, they face
problems with absentee voting or aren’t aware of voting
procedures. Unlike the general voting population, which votes at
fixed permanent addresses, students face the unique problem of
having dual residences.
The confusion surrounding the mechanics of voting will carry
over to today’s Democratic primary as many eligible students
will not vote.
While young people are typically pegged as apathetic voters,
they are also not informed of where or how to vote because of the
lack of outreach beyond the initial registration.
“I want to vote, especially with everything that’s
been going on lately … (but) even if I were registered, I
wouldn’t know where to go,” said Joono Choi, a
first-year sociology student.
Outreach programs often try to register voters as early as
possible, with 18-year-olds as the major target.
“A lot of times, when people don’t register when
they’re young, they don’t register later,” said
Kathy Tawry, a spokeswoman for the County of Los Angeles
Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk.
A person is registered to vote as long as he or she remains at
the same address. Election pamphlets are mailed to each registered
address. So far, they are the main source of outreach and
information for voters. Partially because of changes in address and
the subsequent lack of information, young people who do register
often don’t follow up and participate in the elections.
Deterrents accounting for the low youth vote numbers range from
late absentee ballots to a lack of information on how to vote
absentee.
The registrar encourages college students, particularly those
from out-of-state, to register their local addresses.
“In order to get information, especially from
out-of-state, you’d have to ask your parents to mail it over
or reregister your address,” Colorado resident Johnston
said.
The last day to apply for an absentee ballot application is
seven days before the election. For this year’s general
election in November, applications need to be turned in by Oct.
27.
For some college students, academic load, not voting confusion,
takes precedence over voting.
“I think people are so focused on school that they
don’t know the dates (for voting); they only think in terms
of midterms and finals,” said Megan Chan, a third-year
English student.
Outreach programs target youth voters because of the potential
impact students could have on elections.
In the 2000 presidential election, one of the most contested
presidential elections in history, 36 percent of eligible youth
voters made it to the polls.
This month, Declare Yourself, a nonprofit voter outreach
organization, is launching a youth voter initiative to provide high
school seniors and college students with the tools needed in the
voting process.
As a major part of its effort, it has developed a national
comprehensive guide for youth voters.
“The reader highlights the questions that college students
usually ask,”said Pilaar Terry, a spokeswoman for Declare
Yourself.
The guide will be available online at the Declare Yourself Web
site at the end of this month.
Another outreach organization, Rock the Vote, recently announced
an initiative with Motorola to employ use of wireless technology.
The initiative is aimed at reminding voters of important dates and
voting information.
“I know how to go about voting, but that’s because I
seek the information. I just think students aren’t aware of
the way to go about it, even though they want to vote,” said
Cathy Sylvester, a fourth-year political science and international
development studies student.