With less than a week left to register to vote, groups are making their presence felt on ASU campuses as they work to get students registered.
Undergraduate Student Government, the Arizona Students’ Association and Arizona Public Interest Research Group have joined forces under the Arizona Student Vote Coalition, setting their sights on Tempe.
Their goal is to register 5,000 students on the Tempe campus by Monday’s voter-registration deadline, said Jason Donofrio, student leader for Arizona PIRG.
“Politicians historically have neglected young people. We believe young people are the most important demographic because they are going to inherit the problems,” said Donofrio, an anthropology junior. “The decisions on who we vote for now will affect our lives 40 to 50 years from now.”
The coalition has a number of events planned this week in an effort to make it easy for students to register to vote, Donofrio said. Through Thursday, the group will be tabling at the Memorial Union from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and outside Tempe residence halls from 5 to 10 p.m. From 7 to 9 p.m. there will be residence hall rallies, where volunteers will go knocking on doors getting students to register. The Residence Hall Association is sponsoring the residence hall rallies.
The Arizona Student Vote Coalition also registered students at the Downtown Phoenix campus last week.
At the West campus, a voter-registration drive culminates with the Vote ’08 Candidates and Campaign Forum, said Anthony Fierro, chairman of the advocacy and education committee for Associated Students of ASU West.
The event will be held Thursday on Fletcher Lawn from 9 a.m. to noon, will feature 10 speakers, most of whom are running for office this election, said Fierro, a communication studies junior.
Then from 5 to 8 p.m., there will be a viewing party for the vice presidential debate in the game room of the University Center Building.
Both events are sponsored by ASASUW.
“Student government is hoping with these events to engage students politically to get more people to vote and increase student participation in the upcoming election.” Fierro said.
At the Polytechnic campus, there will be voter-registration tables at the Student Union on Monday from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., according to a campus Web site.
Registering
Casting a vote at a polling place in Arizona requires registering in the state, said Yvonne Reed, communications director for the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office. She said there have been instances when out-of-state students have tried to vote at polling places in Tempe but were turned away because they were not registered in Arizona.
Joe Kanefield, Arizona’s state election director, said that a citizen must be a resident of Arizona for at least 29 days prior to the election in order to register to vote locally.
“That coincides with the registration deadline.” Kanefield said “Residency requires physical presence within the state combined with an intent to remain.”
Residents can find voter registration forms at the county recorder’s office, or printable forms are available online. Arizona citizens can register directly online at https://servicearizona.com/webapp/evoter.
Andrew Rigazio, vice president of policy for USG, said Arizona and Washington are the only states that offer this service. Registering online requires a valid Arizona driver license or a non-operating identification license.
A copy of one’s birth certificate or passport can be used instead of an Arizona driver’s license or a non-operating identification license when registering with a printed form.
For out-of-state students who want to register in their home states, the Arizona Student Vote Coalition has a universal registration form, called the Federal Form. Registering using this form allows students to vote for the office of president only, Rigazio said. Kanefield said filling out this form would register a person in his or her home jurisdiction, an then the person could request an early ballot from that jurisdiction.
For voters registered in Arizona, the deadline for requesting an early ballot is the second Friday prior to any election. This year it is Oct. 24.
Most states won’t allow early voting ballots unless the voter is out of the state, Rigazio said. An early ballot can be requested at https://recorder.maricopa.gov/earlyvoteballotnet/.
Reach the reporter at philip.haldiman@asu.edu.
