While Arizona voters are being inundated with campaign materials and pundit speculation, the Arizona Student Vote Coalition is one group that doesn’t worry about the polls or how young people vote — we just want them to vote.
The Arizona Student Vote Coalition, comprised of the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG), the Arizona Students’ Association (ASA) and the University Student Governments have been working together since 2004 to significantly boost youth voting for three key reasons: First, young people are the generation that will be most impacted by pressing issues in Arizona and by engaging us now it is more likely that we will be a driving force towards the solutions to these issues. Second, youth are a big and growing portion of the electorate (nearly 25 percent in 2008) and as such have the potential to make big impacts on these issues. Third, youth voting habits are formed early — getting more young people to vote now results in a more active citizenry in the future.
As the campaign season becomes more polarizing the closer we get to Election Day, one unifying message we hope all members of the ASU community will promote is that young people (and others) need to vote. More information at www.studentvote.org
Michael Wong VP of Policy for USG, and Twyla Haggerty, Co-Chair of Students for Arizona PIRG. Both are ASU students and co-chair the Arizona Student Vote Coalition.
