October 11. 2004 :: No. 54

CSUF Votes: Cal State Fullerton Students Work to ‘Get Out the Vote’

Hundreds of red, white and blue signs are appearing on campus at Cal State Fullerton, encouraging students to vote.

It’s all part of CSUF Votes — a campus mobilization project, sponsored by CSUF Associated Students Inc. (ASI), the Volunteer and Service Center, and the university’s Office of Public Affairs and Government Relations. The goal is to register students by Oct. 18 so they are eligible to vote in the Nov. 2 election.

“Only half of all eligible voters between the ages of 18-24 exercise their right to vote — that’s 45 million young people who did not vote in the last election,” said Courtney Patterson, director of statewide affairs for ASI. “While college students tend to vote more often than their peers who aren’t enrolled at a university, we want to encourage all students to vote. Of course, registration is just one aspect of the campaign — the second and perhaps more difficult challenge is to get the students to vote,” she noted.

A Voter Education forum is scheduled for Thursday, Oct. 14, and will feature elected representatives talking issues on the November ballot. The forum is scheduled from 1-2 p.m. in the Titan Student Union Pavilion.

A Voter Resource Fair will be held Oct. 12 -14 in the Quad. Representatives from various political parties and issue-oriented groups will be on campus to provide information and clarify issues.

In addition, representatives from the Office of the Orange County Registrar of Voters also demonstrate e-Slate, an electronic voting system that will be used in the November election.

On Tuesday, Oct. 26, the “VoteMobile” will be on campus from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. outside the Titan Bookstore to allow Orange County-based registered voters to vote early, if they so choose.

“We hope by providing a variety of options and programs that we can encourage more students to vote and become civically engaged,” said Patterson. “We’re hoping that once students see the value of voting and have access to information, they will want to exercise this right and become more committed citizens of our community.”

For more information on the CSUF Votes program, log on to asi.fullerton.edu/vote.