Following a low voter turnout for the primary elections, Syracuse University is exercising a new right to encourage students to register for November’s midterm elections.

The deadline to register to vote is Friday. Previously, the Office of Residence Life placed registration forms directly in student mailboxes, and it will continue to do so this year. But the Higher Education Opportunity Act of 2008 is allowing SU to send e-mail reminders for the first time.

Though the act is mainly known for aiming to lower college costs, it also includes an amendment that allows universities to provide information on voter registration. Since the act came into effect, colleges and universities across the nation are sending e-mails to encourage students to vote, in part because of coaxing by higher education groups, said Diana Napolitano, government relations associate at the SU Office of Government and Community Relations.

‘Students are adults,’ she said. ‘We can’t force them to register to vote.’

Before the Higher Education Opportunity Act permitted e-mail reminders, SU impartially promoted registration at events, such as Constitution Day on Sept. 17, during which they distributed the forms with pocket versions of the Constitution, Napolitano said.

In addition to the university’s effort, student groups like the New York Public Interest Research Group are continuing to encourage SU students to register.

‘We’ll be out there every day, registering every student we can,’ said Alejandro Fernandez-Lovo, project coordinator for the local chapter of NYPIRG, a statewide nonpartisan political organization.

NYPIRG is one of several student groups that talk to students about registering to vote and becoming politically active at home, Fernandez-Lovo said. The group encourages students to learn about local candidates and to make an educated decision between absentee voting and registering in Syracuse, he said.

‘We need students to come out and be at the polls,’ he said.

Fernandez-Lovo has participated in politics since the start of his college career in 2004.

‘It’s the first thing I did when I got here,’ he said, referring to his voting registration in Syracuse.

SU has sent out e-mails reminding students to register. Likewise, student groups are continuing to push students to register.

E.S. Bird Library, which becomes a polling location on Election Day, only saw 17 voters on Primary Election Day in September, according to an article published in The Daily Orange on Sept. 15.

Amid voter apathy in Syracuse, Minda Conroe, president of SU College Democrats, and her group have manned a table in Schine Student Center for the last three weeks. The purpose is to place participation over partisanship, she said.

‘We like political participation, regardless of your party,’ said Conroe, a senior in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Last year, the College Democrats and SU College Republicans staged a debate over their policy differences. There are some elements of rivalry, Conroe said, but the groups are too busy promoting participation to spend time sparring with each other.

Many voters are registered in their home state, Conroe said, but are unsure of how to vote in Syracuse. In response, the College Democrats encourage voters to register locally, she said.

Maya Johnson, a freshman in the College of Arts and Sciences and a native of New York City, said she might not vote in the midterm elections because the long distance from home makes her decision difficult.

‘I don’t know enough about the candidates,’ she said. ‘I think it’s wrong to vote if you don’t know who to vote for or what’s going on.’

geclarke@syr.edu

 

Published on October 5, 2010 at 12:00 pm