Student government officials on all four campuses are giving one last push to promote voting as Election Day quickly approaches.
Each campus has been running its own campaign to promote voting among students this semester. The governments also participated in a “pledge to vote” competition with each other as well as UA and NAU.The campus with the most pledges will be presented with a trophy at the Arizona Students’ Association board meeting Nov. 5, said ASA interim executive director Robyn Nebrich. This is the first year ASA has had the competition.
Political science junior and USG vice president of policy Michael Wong said the Undergraduate Student Government in Tempe is using the competition as a centerpiece for its campaign to promote student voting.
Each campus represents itself in the voting pledges race. As of Wednesday, ASU’s Tempe campus had about 2,700 pledges, Wong said.
Each campus received more pledges during the Game Day pep rallies on Thursday but had not counted the new pledges by Thursday night.
“UA is basically in a dead heat with us,” he said. “We don’t know their exact numbers because each campus gets about a couple hundred a day, but my guess is they’re at where we are or slightly ahead. It’s a dead heat and we need to keep the energy going.”
As of Wednesday the Downtown campus had 300 pledges, the Polytechnic campus had 270 and the West campus had 150, according to student government officials.
The competition ends Monday.
Aside from participating in the pledge race, each of the campuses is hosting other activities to get students to vote.
The West campus is hosting an event Nov. 23 for every student who voted in the election. Students who bring their “I Voted” sticker will receive a free T-shirt.
This is just another effort to really encourage students to vote, said political science junior Joshua Tucker, ASA director for the West campus.
“Our whole goal this year is basically to increase voter efficacy on campus,” he said. “Our main goal right now is educating students on the issues and the propositions [and] candidates.”
They will also be sending out an e-mail both Monday and Tuesday to everyone who pledged to vote, reminding them to go to the polls, Tucker said.
The Tempe campus is also hosting follow-up events to continue emphasizing the importance of voting.
Van Jones, former green jobs adviser for President Barack Obama’s administration, and Texas congressman Ron Paul will both be visiting ASU to speak to students about the impact of this midterm election, Wong said.
Jones will be at the Student Services Lawn Nov. 4 at 5 p.m., and Paul will be on Hayden Lawn Nov. 19 at noon, he said.
Whether student leaders are getting students to pledge to vote or setting up events, each leader stressed one thing: Students need to vote on Tuesday.
“We’re more concerned with the fact that a lot of students may not vote because they don’t have enough information to vote,” Tucker said.
Reach the reporter at cottens@asu.edu
