Many organizations at UWG have been encouraging students since August to register to vote. With September being National Voting Month, UWG organizations Young Democrats and National Advancement Association of Colored People (NAACP) set out tables with brochures, laptops and voter registration forms in hopes of getting students registered to vote.
The last day to register to vote was Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2016. Luckily, many students have registered to vote and are planning to be at the polls on election day.
Voter registration events not only took place in the grassy triangle, but also in Ingram Library, University Community Center and the Technology Learning Center.
NAACP’s goal was to reach a certain number of students to register to vote.
“We wanted to have 60 students register to vote at our first voters registration drive,” said Vice President of NAACP Jamal Legree. “We got 118 students to register.”
Voter registration is important to the college community because some students will be voting for the first time.
“We are the minority,” said Legree. “If you look into the numbers you will see that more adults are casting votes than students between the ages of 18-24. If we vote we will make a huge difference in this year’s election.”
College students should be a part of this decision in the 2016 Presidential Election.
“We are the future of this country, and policies implemented today will affect us as we leave college, get into our careers and potentially start our own families,” said Liaison of Young Democrats Darion Reed. “Our futures literally depend on this election.”
However, many students are not satisfied with this year’s candidates.
“This year’s election has brought in more turmoil it seems than when President Obama was running for office,” said Legree.
This fortunately did not stop students from showing an interest in voting, though. Students stopped by these organization tables, reading brochures and choosing an option to either vote electronically or by mail.
Location matters when registering to vote as a college students. Many students chose to vote in their college town, which will prevent students from traveling several miles to submit a poll. With part-time jobs, tests and loads of homework, voting day will be a stress-free task for students thanks to the help of UWG’s NAACP and Young Democrats.
