The smell of poster paint and the chatter of a dozen phone calls
filled the third floor of the Memorial Union Monday night, just 10
hours before the election polls would open.
In the final hours before the election, the ASU Votes Coalition was
pushing to meet its goal of 4,000 student contacts by the time polls
close.
"We're at 3,762 right now," said Isaac Kimes, campaign coordinator for
ASU Votes Coalition. "We're just going to crush this thing."
The coalition, comprised of student and Arizona groups, has also been
working to ensure students at the Downtown campus turn out to vote in
numbers just as high.
Student governments work with the coalition to recruit voters at other
campuses, but the Downtown campus does not yet have a student
government.
"[The] Downtown campus been a little more difficult," said Serena
Unrein, interim executive director of Arizona Students' Association, a
participant in the coalition.
The group distributed voting information at Downtown's Residential
Commons and University Center, gave resident assistants information to
hand out and registered students at the Downtown dining facility.
"It's important that we reach everyone we can," said Dylan Fleisch, a
Public Interest Research Group intern, as she painted signs for ASU
Votes.
Adults aged 18 to 22 are two-thirds less likely to vote, Fleisch said.
"But we have the most investment in the government because we'll be
around longer," she said. "If we want to change something, we should
use politics."
Voting is the only way to do that, Kimes said.
"Young adults need to vote in order to make sure that politicians
address issues students care about, like rising tuition and textbook
costs," he said.
Tuesday, the coalition will be using golf carts to escort voters from
the Tempe and West campuses to nearby polling places, Unrein said.
Getting students to actually vote is the coalition's top priority, Kimes said.
"We can register as many students as we want, but if we don't get them
out to the polls, then young adults won't be effective in the
election," he said.
The coalition also set a 10,000 peer-to-peer contact goal for the state.
These young voters could be part of a record-setting class this midterm
election, according to a report by Harvard University's Institute of
Politics.
According to the report, 32 percent of 18- to 24-year-olds said they
would definitely vote, which would beat the previous record for a
midterm election of about 27 percent in 1982.
Because young adults are predicted to make up a large part of the
electorate, Kimes said politicians should care about student voters now
more than ever.
"If politicians choose to ignore us, then they can at their own peril," he said.
Polls open today at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. Voters can find their polling places at recorder.maricopa.gov.
