Voice Your Vote tries to get students registered By Yael Kohen Daily Staff Reporter College students are notorious for their poor showing at the polls each election year. But the traditional lack of turnout at the polls by students has some of their peers luring them to partake in political activities. A voter registration drive is being held to register by the Jan. 24 deadline for the Michigan primary and caucus. The drive is sponsored by the Michigan Student Assembly's Voice Your Vote Task Force and External Relations Committee in conjunction with the Undergraduate Political Science Association. The groups decided to hold the drive because they "recognized the importance of the individual power to vote," said UPSA President Jeff Omtvedt, an LSA senior. But these groups are seeking to do more than just register students to vote, said Voice Your Vote Chair Shari Katz, an LSA sophomore. The group has also undertaken an education initiative to explain the primary and caucus system and of the whole registration process, she said. The distribution of informational fliers in residence halls, which began yesterday and continues today, is an effort to explain the complex primary and caucus system, Katz said. Omtvedt said he hopes to have a booklet available Monday that will include a synopsis of five out of the eight candidates - former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, magazine editor Steve Forbes, Vice President Al Gore and Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). The booklet will include a statement from the candidates' campaign offices stating why students should vote for their candidate, a brief blurb about the candidates' stances on social security, taxes, health care reform and affirmative action. The booklet will also include a paragraph stating why student groups are supporting a particular candidate, he said. Part of the efforts of Voice Your Vote is to "promote civic engagement" throughout the year, Katz said. It is important to know the candidates throughout the whole process and not just for the November presidential elections, she added. "We are a non-partisan group," Katz said. But students working on campaigns for particular candidates are holding registration drives as well. Students for McCain organizers distributed voter registration forms last night at their mass meeting to later send to registration officials, said Students for McCain co-chair Will Rubens, an LSA junior. On Monday, Students for McCain and Students for Bradley will staff information booths to encourage people to participate in the election process whether for a Democrat or Republican, Rubens said. Voter registration tables will be available today and Monday on the ground floor of the Michigan Union from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and tomorrow in the Fishbowl from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Originally on page 1A in the 1-19-2000 issue of the Daily.