'U' group aims to get out the vote

Voice Your Vote registers students on campus

Amid the growing pressures of homework, papers and midterms, it would be easy for students to forget to register to vote in November's election, especially because it does not feature a highly publicized presidential race.

But one campus group is determined to get students registered and out to the polls.

Voice Your Vote, a campus organization sponsored by the national Rock the Vote campaign, is poised to put on an all-out push to register students before Monday's 5 p.m. deadline. Co-founder Ryan Friedrichs, an LSA senior, said recent agreements with the Secretary of State's office and the state Election Board make registration easier than ever.

"All day tomorrow in the Diag we will be registering people," Friedrichs said. "Just cut out the letter-sized form in Friday's Michigan Daily, and drop it by our stand. Or you can just fill it out there."

In recent months, Voice Your Vote has paved the way for easier voter registration. Last spring, students received a voter registration card with their residence hall leases, allowing them to register in Ann Arbor by filling out the card and returning it with their lease.

LSA junior Andy Coulouris, the Michigan Student Assembly external relations chair and MSA liaison to Voice Your Vote, said he realizes most students will not seek out information on the election. It will have to be thrown in their face, he said.

"The coolest thing about being a student is they make it so ridiculously easy to register and vote," Coulouris said. "The process is begging for student involvement.

"But it's not enough to register students. We have to spur them on to vote," Coulouris said.

Friedrichs added that students should not need much motivation to vote, considering some of the races that will be decided Nov. 3.

"The regents race should be a primary concern for anyone paying thousands of dollars to go to the University," he said. "Student issues are negligible on the political map with the current turnout."

Voice Your Vote is not the only group working to increase turnout for the election. Turnout '98 is a statewide organization that will pay college students all over the state to recruit voters on Nov. 2 and 3.

LSA sophomore Matt Fogarty, a campus representative for the group, said the organization is funded and was started by the Michigan Republican Party, but it will not target only Republican voters.

"We're not trying to change people's minds. We're just trying to inform voters and get them to vote," Fogarty said.

Friedrichs said Voice Your Vote will also be shifting its focus after this week from registration to education and mobilization. The group plans to coordinate debates on campus, gather literature and use Diag boards to promote voting.

Friedrichs would not set a goal for voter turnout this year, though.

"I don't want to do that. I just hope it's higher than the 20 percent we had in 1994," Friedrichs said.

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