Greek Rock the Vote

[BabyP]

What do you think about Greeks trying to bring the vote to campuses?? I am thinking of petitioning the cali governor and senators to have voting polls at CSUS and other universities. I think it would be ideal. An university is like a small town with about 25 thousand people. Many people live in dorms or have temporary housing, they cant go all the way home to pick up absentee ballot or miss some hours of their job/classes to vote on election day. Also it would make the campus more involved and aware. I dont know if it has been done before? What do you think?

[TSteven]

Most likely, a polling site or sites may already be designated near your campus. (The same for other campuses too.)

State law dictates voting sites based on the number of registered voters in the area. So FIRST and FOREMOST you need to get students registered to vote.

Equally important for "out of town" & "out of state" students who are registered back home. Either have them re-register or change their registration to your local community. Or help them secure an absentee ballot.

For more information please check out the following.

California Elections & Voter Information

[dakareng]

NPC and NIC chapters will hear more about this soon in mailings from HQ but there is a movement called GO VOTE 04 (Greeks Oranizing Voting Opportunities, Transportation and Education in 2004). It is an effort to do exactly what Baby P suggested. Chapters are encouraged to either as a joint effort through IFC and/or Panhellenic or as an individual chapter project to sponsor voter registration drives. The booklet that some groups received at Conventions (Pi Phi chapters will get it in their HQ mailing ) details how to do this and gives contact information for different states.

Getting students registered and enthused about voting is an important first step to getting your issues heard. Politicians work hardest for those who get them(or got them) elected. No matter what your political inclinations, this is a great project.

[hoosier]

(www.yconservatives.com)

[The1calledTKE]

http://www.yda.org/

[AlphaXiGirl]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/EDUCATION/08....ap/index.html

Temporary addresses will likely be the biggest problem with collegiate voting. Voting absentee actually means that you have to think about voting before election day - for college students that are likely to wait until the last minute to write a 20 page paper, I don't see many of them taking the time to do what needs to be done to vote "back home".

Luckily, I only lived 35 miles from my school. Every year, I made the trip to vote in my hometown. Professors were very willing to allow missed classes for this... until they asked how I voted

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

Originally posted by TSteven
Most likely, a polling site or sites may already be designated near your campus. (The same for other campuses too.)

State law dictates voting sites based on the number of registered voters in the area. So FIRST and FOREMOST you need to get students registered to vote.

Equally important for "out of town" & "out of state" students who are registered back home. Either have them re-register or change their registration to your local community. Or help them secure an absentee ballot.

For more information please check out the following.

California Elections & Voter Information

Yeah- I was gonna say- in Iowa you petition the county auditor for satelite voting locations, etc in places of high density. Thus you can go and vote a few days ahead of time at a polling site set up in the neighborhood grocery store or in the rec room of your res. hall if a petition goes through.
(Story County gets irked with me every year when I post on ISU message boards the locations of the on-campus satelite voting before they can get it on their website)

[IowaStatePhiPsi]

as for a GGOTV (Greek Get Out The Vote), I'm assuming most GLOs are similar to Phi Psi in having a by-law to limit or prohibit discussion of politics within official business, etc. But since there is diversity within the chapter it's best to just get the voter registration forms out to the members and get them sent in so everyone is registered to vote and remind them of upcoming elections and deadlines (like for us School Board elections are on the 14th of Sept and registration deadline is this Friday to be eligible to vote in that election) and leave it up to them to inform themselves on the issues or candidates (or find a neutral 3rd party website that can direct them to information, like your county auditor's website or local newspaper)