Morlock: UA activists aim to register 5,000 students to vote
At UA, push is on to register 5,000 students
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Ashlyn Levesque will vote for Barack Obama this year but she reveals a degree of disdain for others supporting the Illinois senator.
"People are just jumping on the bandwagon and voting for Barack Obama because he's trendy," said Levesque, a 22-year-old nursing student at the University of Arizona.
Her friends Mallory O'Connell and Libby Jansen, both also 22 and graduating in December, rolled their eyes and nodded their heads in agreement.
"It's like the people who wear 'coexist' shirts but don't know what it means," O'Connell said.
All the Barack Obama campaign needs to hear is its candidate described as "trendy," a label hardly applied to Bob Dole or Mike Dukakis.
Once again, the young voters are the object of Democratic Party affections. Will they again be the fickle mistress?
Young voters represent a sizable demographic easily ignored because they under-represent themselves at the polls.
The Democrats are banking on a big voter turnout, and student leaders on the UA campus are working to make sure the college voter is heard on and after Nov. 4.
In Arizona, 42 percent of voters ages 18 to 24 voted in 2004 compared to 58 percent of the rest of the registered voters in the state. There were about 432,000 voters between the ages of 18 and 24 in 2004 but 2.2 million voters 25 and older in the state, according to census and Arizona secretary of state numbers.
The Associated Students of the University of Arizona hosted a voter-registration drive kickoff on campus last week. The hope is to register 5,000 students to vote by Oct. 6.
ASUA President Tommy Bruce said 225 students showed up at the meeting to organize the registration drive, the best of any school in the country.
Fraternities and sororities, Residence Life and UA-sanctioned clubs and organizations are all taking part in the get-out-the-vote effort.
Campus leaders are working with the Public Interest Research Group on a nationwide registration drive on college campuses. The school that signs up the most new voters will get a free concert by Death Cab for Cutie.
"One of the biggest misconceptions is that not every vote counts," Bruce said. "A huge part of our campaign is that not only does every vote count, every vote is important."
Voters and would-be voters could look at their ballot as inconsequential in determining the outcome of an election. Rarely does a one-vote margin change the course of history, though a little more than 500 votes in Florida did just that in 2000.
In an age where political consultants can distill an electorate down to its elements, young people risk being ignored by not voting. Campaigns know who matters and who doesn't and the youth vote has not mattered all that much in past elections.
Mike Hellon, who runs Sen. John McCain's southern Arizona campaign, said if a wheel doesn't squeak it won't get the grease.
"I can give you a good civics lesson on why that should not be the case," Hellon said. "But it would be political malpractice to behave otherwise."
However, U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a freshman Democrat seeking re-election against former Republican state Senate President Tim Bee, is chasing the younger demographic.
Last Friday, Tucson alt-rock band Calexico played a benefit concert for her campaign to more than 1,200 largely young voters. About 100 of them registered to vote, said Eric Swedlund, a Giffords campaign spokesman.
How many simply went to a concert versus how many went to rally for Giffords isn't known.
Younger voters are more receptive to innovation and possibilities and much more willing to accept change, Swedlund said.
"These younger voters care about the same issues as everyone else," he said. "They just frame it differently."
But the change motif may be why Democrats are spending more time seeking young voters than Republicans.
It's why Hellon and McCain's Southwestern operation are not spending much time going after the young vote.
The Republican camp has put more emphasis on women, military and independent voters, as well as senior citizens, he said.
"We've got pretty good data on who actually shows up at the polls," Hellon said. "Those are the demographics we are going after."
What's more, Hellon said, polls suggest that younger voters tend to be more liberal and not as supportive of McCain as the rest of the country.
Obama would likely be campaigning for Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton were it not for younger voters putting him over the edge in Iowa and other caucus states during the primary season.
So the campaign is building an infrastructure of younger voters, using them to go after their own with phone banks, by walking campus neighborhoods and by using the Internet to build support for the Illinois senator.
"Students are leading the charge," said Obama's Arizona spokesman, David Cieslak. "It's not a bunch of older people coming onto campus saying, come support my candidate."
Considering college voters will likely have their lives change dramatically upon graduation, that makes sense.
Four years ago, Levesque didn't really know much about politics or national issues.
"I had no idea what was going on," she said, before she became a news junkie.
Jansen and O'Connell are opposites in political action. Jansen said she feels uneducated on the election and hasn't sat down to figure out who she will vote for.
O'Connell, more politically active, last week got three other friends registered to vote.
"I don't care who they vote for," she said. "Just so long as they vote."
Read Blake Morlock's blog, "Is this thing on?"
- Read All Comments » 40 TOTAL COMMENTS
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Bug M. (bugmenot)
Sep 26, 2008 @ 4:50pmObama is "trendy" ? Like OMG you guys. Weak! -
Scott F. (Scotty F)
Sep 25, 2008 @ 7:44pmCommies aren't cool Chris M. -
MARY A. (#3221)
Sep 25, 2008 @ 12:09am@22 --- Maybe you should find out why Senator -- former POW John McCain-- can't use a computer. Have you every heard why?
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