Cassie Weber
Alexandra Endaltseba, a campus representative for CoPIRG, and Cameron Williams, a sophomore sport and exercise major, help students register before the deadline.
Given Colorado’s unpredictable political turnout in past presidential elections, it has been classified as a swing state this year and one that has the potential to help decide the White House’s occupant for the next four years. Oct 9 marked the deadline for Colorado residents to register for this year’s election.
“There are so many of us college students whose opinions matter because we can make a real difference this year,” said Sara Leach, a senior recreation, tourism and hospitality major. “But this is true about many American citizens. We, as a generation, owe it to the generations before us to vote because they fought for our right to vote.”
As a last ditch effort to get students and members of the community to register to vote in this important election year, there are many different voter registration groups that have bribed students to get them to register to vote, most recently, CoPIRG, the Colorado Public Interest Research Group.
“We partnered with Taco John’s because it was a way to get students to register to vote and receive free food as well,” Leach said. “Taco John’s is an incentive for students to register. We asked one of the employees of Taco John’s if they would like to partner up and sponsor the event and they agreed.”
Another organization, the New Voters Project — which is an extension of CoPIRG — was also present on campus the past few months in the hopes of getting new and existing voters to register either for the first time or for their change of address.
“We’ve already signed up 700 new voters so far,” said Erin Larkin, a member of CoPIRG. “We’re not only going around the campus, though. We also have volunteers and some of our workers going around the community, door-to-door, trying to get new voters.”
Although many students have already registered to vote, they are still really excited about the election.
“I’m excited about the election, but I’ve been registered since last year so I’m really just wanting to vote and get it over with,” said Sylvia Stone, a political science major.
A lot of students on campus are excited to engage in this experience for the very first time. Other students disdain both candidates and don’t believe they should vote.
“I’m thinking about voting, but I don’t really know why I would because I don’t know the issues and I really don’t like Romney or Obama,” said Stephanie Norwood, a journalism major.
Election Day is Nov. 6 and the University Center Ballrooms will provide students with a convenient place to cast their vote.