Housing to aid in voter registration

In an attempt to increase voter registration among University students, University Housing will begin sending voter registration forms with leases sent to new students.

By presenting the voter registration card to a student before coming to the University, "the student will have the primary information needed to register - their address," said Alan Levy, director of Housing public affairs.

Voice Your Vote, a student group on campus, conceived the idea for the initiative when the group evaluated its 1996 voter registration drive.

Hartford

Ryan Friedrichs, co-founder of Voice Your Vote, said the drive registered 6,500 students, which was one of the highest totals in the country. But the group wanted to find additional ways to reach more of the University's 36,000 students.

"There's something structurally wrong with the process if we're one of the best groups in the country and we only get about 7,000 students (to register)," Friedrichs said.

Friedrichs said the group then decided to act on the idea, which Housing just recently approved. Student leases mailed this spring will include the cards and an explanatory letter from Vice President for Student Affairs Maureen Hartford.

"The things that we will be pushing are both civic engagement and the fact that voting is a part of the education at a public university like Michigan," Hartford said. "We are training citizens here."

The registration push is part of a plan to boost overall voter participation in the community, Levy said.

"We're working with Voice Your Vote to do what we can to facilitate civic involvement among students," Levy said.

The plan may include sending forms to as many as 10,000 of the University's 36,000 students, Levy said.

LSA first-year student Ron Leibovitch said he has never registered to vote, but the new plan may encourage him to do so.

"I've been too lazy to go out of my way to register. The opportunity never came up," Leibovitch said.

Friedrichs said he hopes the plan will encourage students to register in Ann Arbor, rather than in their hometowns.

"Students are a lot more likely to actually vote if they can walk down in their pajamas in their dorm to cast a vote," Friedrichs said.

Levy said the push to register students will not end with this plan. "We're also discussing a way to tap current students," Levy said.

This initiative will allow VYV to focus on other goals, rather than put all of its resources into the registration drive.

"We have three goals - to register, educate and motivate," Friedrichs said. "We can now devote more resources to the second two parts."

Friedrichs said low voter turnout, including the 20-percent student showing in the 1994 election, has left student issues in the background. He said this plan should make student issues more important in the eyes of local and state politicians.

"An increase in student turnout will bring student issues to the forefront," Friedrichs said.

02-11-98