By Steven Williamson, News Editor
New Jersey Public Interest Research Groups Student Chapters registered
over 2,200 students to vote at the University last week and over 2,750
across the state in a mass effort to increase student involvement in
the upcoming statewide election.
The lengthy event, titled Voter Registration Blitz Week, targeted
unregistered students across the University in an attempt to increase
participation in November's off-year election.
NJPIRG stopped students on the street and set up tables at several
locations, including in front of Brower Commons on the College Avenue
campus. They also ran onto buses and walked into certain classes in an
effort to increase registration.
While the election, which focuses on local and state politicians, is
not as widely publicized as next year's presidential election, the
final number of registrations was high.
"The statewide election is always a little less well known, but we
basically [received the same number of votes] as we did last year,"
said Sarah Clader, the NJPIRG board chair. "It's cool to have done the
same thing two years in a row."
The organization set out to register over 1,000 voters on the College
Avenue campus alone, a goal they met and exceeded. They also received
help from other University based organizations, such as RU Voting, the
Black Student Union and the College Avenue Campus Council.
The final numbers reflected those that took forms and filled them out
on the spot, Clader said. They did not include those who took forms
with them to mail them into the state personally.
She attributed some of the success of the registration drive to the widely publicized 2008 presidential campaign.
"Obviously the 2008 candidates [for the presidency] have been running
for well over a year and it's all over the news," Clader said.
In addition to registering students to vote, some members helped civic-minded students to send a message to the 2008 candidates.
Students were able to take photographs of themselves and send them to
candidates while asking what the presidential hopefuls' plans are on
several major issues. NJPIRG hopes the petitions will help to increase
politicians' focus on student oriented issues such as affordable higher
education and global warming.
On the Cook/Douglass campus, 620 students were registered to vote this
year said campus coordinator Shannon Langue. The number is a stark
increase from last year's tally of approximately 550 students, Langue
said.
She credited this year's success to a combination of strong leadership and dedicated from volunteers.
"We were everywhere. We had tables set up mainly in the Douglass Campus
Center, but we were all over [both the Cook and Douglass campuses],"
Langue said.
Clader said NJPIRG was even successful in registering several hundred
voters on the Busch campus, which has been one of their weaker areas in
the past.
"Before this year, there was no concentrated effort on Busch campus in
particular," said Busch campus coordinator Colleen Spivey. "Last year,
we registered about 600 students on the Busch and Livingston campuses
combined, and we have already passed that number this year."
Spivey said that 306 students were registered on Busch campus last week, exceeding NJPIRG's goal of 300.
But these numbers are not final, as the organization is focusing on
certain first-year students who were unable to come out and register
due to their mandatory residence hall meetings.
"We should have more [voters registering] this week, meaning we will beat our goal of 300 by quite a bit," said Spivey.
