When students opened today’s edition of The Reveille, they may have noticed an official-looking piece of paper dutifully inserted in its pages.
This is a voter registration card.
Tracy Simoneaux, a member of Student Media’s civic discussion group, said a single card was inserted into each issue of today’s Reveille.
The card is part of an effort by Student Media and Student Government to get students registered for upcoming elections.
Simoneaux said the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office sent 10,000 cards to the University — many of which will be handed out at the Groovin’ on the Grounds today — in addition to the 12,000 voter registration cards inserted into today’s Reveilles.
Student Media and Student Government will have tables set up in Free Speech Alley during Groovin’ on the Grounds and will have workers available to assist students with getting registered.
Michele Gieg, another member of the civic discussion group, said getting registered to vote is easy.
“The cards are not that hard to fill out,” she said. “You don’t even need your driver’s license.”
The tables in Free Speech Alley will accept and mail off completed voter registration cards and provide assistance to those who need help completing them.
Students getting registered at the tables have the option of joining a mailing list that will notify them about upcoming elections.
Gieg said this is the biggest voter registration push ever done at the University.
Allen Richey, SG president, said the effort to get voters registered is important.
“The project is incredibly worthy because the voice of students in our age group is relatively unheard,” Richey said.
The civic discussion group is partnered with a larger umbrella group from Harvard University called the National Campaign for Political and Civic Engagement, Simoneaux said.
“We hope to use the media to engage citizens in the democratic process, even if it means using a newspaper to distribute voter registration cards,” she said.
Simoneaux also said the civic discussion group does not advocate any particular political issue or belief, but rather public participation in the democratic process.
“I see the media as being a group that is responsible for not only putting out accurate information about what is going on in the world, but also encouraging participation in that world,” she said.
According to the Higher Education Act of 1998, every college and university must have enough voter registration forms to register the entire campus 60 days prior to the deadline for registering for an election.
Although there are no legal punishments for not complying with the act, the law requires university administrations to provide a “good faith effort” in getting voters registered.
To request an absentee ballot, students can send a written request to their parish Registrar of Voters stating their name and the reason why they cannot vote in person.
A list of Registrars can be found at www.elections.state.la.us/ registrar.
Ballots must be received by election day.