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UTM hopes to register students to vote in national project


UTM is participating in a nationwide voter registration project aimed at registering 40,000 college students for the 2006 elections.

Mike McCullough and SGA, local sponsors for the project, hope to register five percent, or 277 students, of UTM’s enrollment based on 2005-06 numbers.

SGA has been setting up registration tables in the UC and working with student organizations as part of the effort, which began Sept. 18. Registration forms will also be distributed in classes by students and professors, and emails and direct mailings will be sent to a randomly selected sample of students.

McCullough, professor of management and UTM’s American Democracy Project chair, isn’t sure how many registration forms have been collected so far.

“That number is real soft right now because forms are still coming in. I think it’s looking good for us to reach our goal,” McCullough said.

UTM’s effort is part of a nationwide project of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) to register 40,000 college students to vote. AASCU, which represents 430 state colleges and universities that enroll more than 3.7 million students, will register students at more than 70 locations in 32 states.

The project will also research which strategies are most effective in registering students and which strategies are most likely to result in a vote being cast. The results will be used to develop future voter registration projects aimed at college students.

The AASCU’s program is part of a larger nationwide effort by Young Voter Strategies (YVS), a project of the Graduate School of Political Management at George Washington University. YVS hopes its effort, which is funded by a $3 million grant from the Pew Charitable Trusts, will register 350,000 voters in 2006.

State law requires citizens be registered at least 30 days prior to an election to be eligible to vote, meaning citizens must be registered by Oct. 8 in order to vote in the Nov. 7 election.

McCullough recommended the www.rockthevote.com and www.govote.org Web sites for those who are unable to register through the project.

“We want anybody to register any way they can,” McCullough said.

“It is important that we, especially college students, participate in elections. Students are the future of our nation and it is imperative that we have [a] say in what occurs in our country,” Student Body President James Orr said in an e-mail.

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