Medill freshman Jodi Genshaft did it over the Internet. Weinberg freshman Tanya Colburn did it through her neighbor.

A few hundred students did it on buses, and another couple of hundred students did it on the spot after Jesse Jackson urged them to in the Technological Institute. More than 1,100 Northwestern students have registered to vote this quarter, and if you still want to do it, today’s your last chance.

YOUR VOTE, YOUR VOICE

The number of registered voters among 18- to 24-year-olds traditionally has been low. More than two-thirds of 18- to 24-year-olds weren’t registered to vote in the 1998 election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

“You have no right to complain about the government if you’re not contributing your voice,” said Associated Student Government President Adam Humann, who’s been coordinating voter registration drives on campus with various student groups.

The low numbers have prompted organizations such as MTV and the World Wrestling Federation to spearhead youth voter registration efforts on campuses and in communities across the country.

Because of the rise of the Internet and new initiatives such as the 1998 Higher Education Act, a federal mandate requiring colleges and universities nationwide to make voter registration forms widely available, student registration theoretically should be simpler than in previous presidential elections.

But government efforts aren’t enough, said Jon Isaacs, program director for Youth Vote 2000, a Washington-based coalition of 75 organizations nationwide — including Rock the Vote and Project Vote Smart — that encourages young people to become politically active.

“The stuff done by students is the most effective,” Isaacs said.

Because NU recognizes the importance of student involvement in the registration process, administrators started meeting in the spring with Humann and other student leaders to generate interest in the Nov. 7 general election, said Lucile Krasnow, NU’s community resource specialist. The Cook County Clerk’s office also has provided student groups with registration forms and deputized student leaders, which authorizes them to register fellow students.

“It’s really up to people in our generation to take the initiative,” said Humann, a Weinberg senior. “There’s only so much government can do.”

Student group leaders boarded buses headed to the President’s Convocation during New Student Week to distribute registration forms to freshmen. They’ve also set up tables in Norris University Center to get out the word.

“Not a single part of this has only been ASG,” Humann said. “It’s a campuswide, group effort.”

Krasnow agreed: “There’s never been an effort like this. It was really the student organizations that took off and did all the work.”

WHERE IT COUNTS

Not only have student group members urged their peers to register, but they’ve also stressed the importance of local registration, Humann said.

“People need to register in Evanston,” he said. “You live at NU. You are here for nine months of the year. This is what affects us.”

Although the city has never staged drives to entice students and residents to register to vote, said Civia Dunn, a clerk at the Evanston city clerk’s office, students have always found their way to the office to register, especially in presidential election years such as this one.

“Students complain … that the city of Evanston is not representing their interests well,” University President Henry Bienen said. “You want people to pay attention to your interests? Vote. Then they have to be worried about what you think about parking, whether you think a bowling alley is a good thing in the town and a lot of other things.”

Students have until 5:30 p.m. today to register at the clerk’s office in the Evanston Civic Center, 2100 Ridge Ave., Room 1400.

At last count, roughly 38,000 Evanston residents — about half of the city’s population — are registered to vote, said City Clerk Mary Morris. “But that’s gone way up because of the tremendous amount of registration,” Morris added.

But she said there was no way to know how many of those 38,000 are students, and a final tally of Evanston’s registered voters won’t be available until after the election.

Because Evanston’s elections are important to NU, Humann said, another registration drive is in the works for the final weeks of Winter Quarter — just in time for the the city’s spring elections.

FOLLOWING THROUGH

Because states have different registration requirements, registering students to vote can be complicated, said John Dervin, communications director for Youth Vote 2000. Voters in Illinois, for example, must register 28 days before an election, but voters in New Hampshire can register at the polls, Dervin said.

And because voter registration is handled by state governments, there’s technically nothing stopping NU students who are registered in both Illinois and their home states from voting twice: once in Evanston and another time by absentee ballot.

But no matter how many registration cards students have, it won’t matter unless they cast their ballots. To prevent a disparity between registering and voting — less than half of 18- to 24-year-old registered voters voted in the 1998 election, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — NU administrators and ASG plan to make sure students know where they can vote, Krasnow said.

Because NU straddles two of Evanston’s nine aldermanic wards, students living on North Campus can vote at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, 2122 Sheridan Road, and South campus residents can vote at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.

“Voter registration is one thing,” said Dervin of Youth Vote 2000. “But right now I’m most worried that (students) won’t vote.”