I have something for you to add to your to-do list this week. In addition to presentations and the second bout of midterms, on top of your graduate school applications and submitting your pre-registration requests - this week I need you to vote.
Voting day for the general election isn't until Nov. 7. But as you and I both know, we students sometimes believe ourselves to be too busy to vote on Election Day.
It's a Tuesday, so we'll have classes all day, meetings all evening and we might even have to work. There's just no time to drive to the polls.
Besides, some of our polling precincts are near our parents' houses where we're registered to vote; clearly we won't have enough time to beat the traffic after class.
Luckily for us, Arizona has a wonderful little voting trick that I'm going to let you in on. Are you ready?
Keep your voice down - it's a secret! Okay, the trick is ... request an early ballot.
What's this? A way to vote in the comfort of your own home? Unheard of! But it's true, my friend. With the magic of an early ballot you can vote from your couch.
You can vote in front of your computer so you can easily look up all the confusing ballot propositions. Heck, you can even vote during a bye round in Friday night's beer-pong tournament.
So how do you get this magical early ballot? It's quite simple. You find a computer and get on the Web site of the county recorder's office. For those of us registered to vote in Maricopa County, you are looking for recorder.maricopa.gov.
On that site you will find a link for "Early vote ballot request." Click that button, fill out the subsequent form and voila, an early ballot will be mailed to you. But make sure you make your request by the deadline, which is this Friday.
Then all you have to do is sift your way through the ballot choices, sign and seal the envelope they provide for you and drop it back in the mailbox - no postage required.
In Arizona there is even more of a reason to vote early and by mail. The Supreme Court just upheld Proposition 200, passed in 2004, which means that voters will be required to present valid forms of ID in order to vote at the polls on Nov. 7.
While the court did not necessarily rule on the constitutionality of the provisions of Proposition 200, they did decide to stop the order from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which would have prevented Arizona from enforcing the voter ID provisions.
The court reasoned that the state's interest in preventing voter fraud outweighed the potential disenfranchisement of some voters who will not have the correct identification.
So rather than worry about which IDs are legally acceptable and how many you need to bring, just avoid the polls altogether. But don't let that stop you from voting, from making your voice heard.
When you vote early they don't make you send in a photo ID with your ballot; they simply verify your signature on your mail-in ballot against your signature on their voter registration lists.
I do think it's kind of sad that we're losing the face-to-face contact that we make at the polls. When you vote by mail you aren't getting out and seeing your neighbors or your poll workers, or even sharing ideas with them before your cast your vote.
But let's be realistic, our participatory democracy is floundering with low voter-turnout percentages anyway. If the choice is between not voting at all and voting by mail, then please do yourself a favor and request an early ballot before Friday.
Laura Thorson is a history and political science senior who does not actually recommend voting during beer-pong tournaments. Reach her at: laura.thorson@cox.net.
