By PJ McIntyre
Most college students fit into the 18- to 24-year-old age group, which
has the lowest voter registration and turnout rate of any age group,
according to an Indiana Public Interest Research Group press release.
In the 2004 election, 47 percent of 18 to 24 year olds voted, the
highest total for the group in over a decade, according to the release.
Members
of the New Voters Project target students around campus, helping them
to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election. The project
is a student-directed, nonpartisan political organization, which is
part of the nationwide Student Public Interest Research Group. Members
of the New Voters Project look to get everyone on campus registered to
vote. The group has registered more than 600,000 young voters
nationally since its launch in 2003, according to a Student Public
Interest Research Group fact sheet.
The Projects Media Coordinator Kate Farrell said registering voters is harder than
it seems.
“We want students to be passionate about voting,” she said. “But sometimes they think they can’t make a difference.”
The
project’s goal is to help students get involved by holding political
events, which gets students interested in topics and issues that
motivate young people to vote, Farrell said.
One way the group
has tried to get students involved is by hosting political debate
parties. While watching the Republican and Democratic debates in
January, more than 60 students, ranging from freshmen to graduates,
gathered at Wylie Hall to discuss how they felt about each candidate.
The New Voters Project is also planning a campus-wide debate between the college Democrat and Republican groups, Farrell said.
The
debate will bring the two groups together to debate political issues
that are important in the upcoming election. Different organizations
from around campus will submit questions that are important to them.
The IU Army ROTC will provide questions about the war in Iraq, Farrell
said, and students in the IU School of Nursing will be able to ask
questions about health care.
Members of the New Voters Project
also set up a table on the mezzanine level of the Indiana Memorial
Union every Wednesday and Thursday for four hours to try to get
students to register to vote, said Patrick Ober, project research
coordinator.
Ober said this is one of the many things the group does to try and reach out to students.
“We
need all the University organizations to work together to get people
interested in politics,” Ober said. “It’s important to be unified on a
common goal of getting students motivated.”
