ASU's student regent resigned Thursday to spearhead a student early-voting project.
Law student Kolby Granville resigned as of 7 a.m. Thursday. He delivered his resignation speech after the Arizona Board of Regents meeting started at 7:30 a.m.
"As a regent, I was the voice of the students," he said in his speech. "But as a student, as solely a student, I can be its work hands."
Granville was serving the non-voting first half of his term, so his resignation will not directly affect board decisions.
He left the board to develop a program that would give on-campus residents the opportunity to request early ballots for state and local elections at dorm check-in and receive a report on candidates' stances on education.
Granville said it would be a conflict of interest for him to remain a regent and work on the project, which he hopes will be operational by next school year.
"If I'm right ... [the Arizona Students Association] a year from now will be sitting on 10,000 or 15,000 early ballot requests," he said. "And if I'm wrong ... I just made the most colossal mistake of my life."
Undergraduate Student Government President Yaser Alamoodi said Granville's decision caught him by surprise when he learned of it Thursday morning.
"I'm going to miss him," Alamoodi said.
USG Vice President Corinne Widmer said she and Alamoodi respected his decision.
"We're excited about what he's going to be doing," Widmer said.
State law requires that the vacancy Granville left be filled but does not specify a timeframe or procedure.
At press time, student government officials planned to meet Thursday night to nail down a procedure for nominating a replacement.
"We're seeking to fill his position in coordination with the [Graduate and Professional Student Association], student leaders from ASU Polytechnic, ASU West, as well as the ASU administration to guarantee the students of ASU a strong, assertive and aggressive representation," Alamoodi said.
Granville said he first considered stepping down about six weeks ago but thought it was a bad idea.
"Then the more I talked to administrators ... what I found was a lot of really caring people who were given really difficult decisions to make with scarce resources," he said.
He now plans to use his voting initiative to "go to the place the money's being taken away from, and that's the Legislature," Granville said.
He said that before elections, project participants would submit early-ballot requests for students who filled them out at the beginning of the school year. This would put students on candidates' radar screens and make it easier for students to vote, he said.
Granville said he was surprised by the warm reception he received after announcing his resignation.
"My expectation was there'd be surprise, concern, maybe a little resentment, and that's not what I found at all," he said.
State Press editor Amanda Keim contributed to this report.
Reach the reporter at brian.indrelunas@asu.edu.
