Each election season the Arizona Democratic Party hires ASU students as interns, but this year, they have increased efforts to involve students in raising voter registration.
The party has employed about 20 ASU students this election cycle as interns and full-time, paid employees as Arizona's political climate begins to shift.
Interns and campus organizers chiefly coordinate voter registration events and community outreach such as phone banking and door-to-door voter registration, mostly in Senate District 26, which represents parts of Scottsdale, Tempe and Mesa.
"AZ LD 26". Via Ballotpedia.
Logan Miller is a sustainability freshman at ASU and said he came to the University hoping to get involved in politics, but he had no idea that in his first semester he would be a paid field organizer intern at the state Democratic Party.
"I'm all about getting people involved in the process and the way Arizona Democratic Party operates, we use a community-based model," Miller said. "We empower the community, and we want to build a community around political organization instead of low turnout for candidates who don’t really match people's wants and desires."
He said he and other interns register people of all parties, but they target areas with high concentrations of Democratic voters, such as minority-heavy and low-income areas. He said he works in Senate District 26 most often.
Miller works under a senior campus organizer such as Kanin Pruter, a junior interdisciplinary major. Campus organizers coordinate student outreach and oversee students who work for the party.
Pruter said he also recruits students for the internship and consistently meets with party leaders.
"(What we do) is an important thing because we are fighting for the basic right that a lot of people my age feel disenfranchised from," Pruter said. "I encourage college students getting involved in any and all ways. A lot of college students just don't know the basics."
He said the job can be stressful, yet rewarding. Although Pruter is happy with his work in the Democratic Party, he said the job isn't something to which every student should aspire.
"Not everybody has time to be a field organizer, but it teaches so much, and you grow so much as a human being, and you learn so much," Pruter said. "It's kind of like a social work job."
Many interns go out for hours on end each day in an effort to raise political awareness.
Alexa Rodriguez, a freshman political science major, is one of these interns.
She said she loves the work she does for the party, and Arizona’s status as a battleground state has influenced her decision to become more involved.
“I am well aware that our state's political tendencies don't reflect our population here,” Rodriguez said. “A lot of people who are eligible to vote are in the Democratic Party. Young people and especially students have such an opportunity to go out there and make these changes.”
She said having college students work for the party is advantageous because they are the best age group to register Democratic voters.
"The 70-year-old asking people to register to vote isn't going to be as effective as me," Rodriguez said. "(College students) are able to reach different demographics than old people."
Reach the reporter at Garrison.Murphy@asu.edu or follow @Garrison_Murphy on Twitter.
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