Registration drive attracts late voters

By Ryan Smith

For all those eligible to vote in the upcoming presidential election who haven’t registered yet, time is running out.

Though the election is a little less than a month away, the deadline for voter registration is less than two weeks from now—Oct. 18.

But eligible voters need not worry—there are plenty of places to get registration forms, including here on campus. The application process is easy and, most importantly, free.

On campus, the Fresno State Leadership Program, along with USU Productions, Associated Students, POWER (Women’s Studies Club), the Political Science Association, MEChA and the Hmong Students Association, is finishing a voter registration campaign today geared specifically toward college students.

“We are trying to get students to take a more active role in the election process,” said Geri Yang, a junior in the women’s studies program while discussing the registration process with a group of students.

“Students aren’t aware of politics and the government, but economics, tuition, immigration rights and the war in Iraq are important, and that’s why we’re promoting not just the need to register to vote, but to be aware of these issues,” Yang said.

While the Leadership Program finishes its drive today, the local party headquarters will continue to promote voter registration up until the deadline.

On the last day of registration, the Republican Party headquarters in Fresno will have a table out at the River Park shopping center. The headquarters’ executive director, Rebecca Wong, said their mission is to make registering to vote as easy as possible for everyone.

Wong also said registration appears to be up compared to the 2000 election and that her office was making a big push to attract as many people as possible from different age groups and ethnicities to the voting booth.

“We are trying to get a new Republican group on Fresno State’s campus to help encourage campus voters,” Yang said. “The Hispanic vote is also very important. We have radio ads for major radio stations in the area, both in English and in Spanish—So yes, Hispanics and the youth are the most important.”

While the Republican headquarters works to establish a group on campus, the Democratic Party headquarters has already been working with the College Democrats group to register students.

Susan Rowe, a trustee with the Democratic Party said there are a lot of issues and events that directly affect college students and it’s important for them to know what they are.

“There is a lot of misinformation out there,” Rowe said. “There just aren’t as many jobs as there has been. Gas prices are up, they are trying to put the draft in effect, tuition is up and there aren’t as many grants available to students now.”

Though new registration is on the rise, Wong said a new trend she hadn’t seen during the last presidential election is that of people voting across party lines. She said the crossover probably has to do with the fact that there are many “controversial issues” out there, such as the war in Iraq.

Wong said that while the main goal of the party offices is to attract people to their parties, the registration process is completely non-partisan.

“People can come to our office and register either way, but if they have questions, we’re not going to laugh them away.”

—Chhun Sun contributed to this article.