Students will have one fewer excuse not to vote in Evanston elections, after today’s Associated Student Government meeting. At the meeting a Cook County official will authorize senators and other student group members to register voters.

To promote student political involvement, senators and interested students now can be trained as deputies — meaning they will be able to register other students to vote in local elections.

Weinberg junior John Hughes, ASG city council liaison and author of the deputization bill that passed Oct. 1, said voting is especially important on a college campus.

“College students as a group are less likely to vote than almost any other group,” said Hughes, a former Daily Forum editor and current board member for Students Publishing Co., which oversees The Daily. “That’s unfortunate because it means that student voices might not be heard.”

A Cook County official will make a presentation on voter registration and deputize senators and other student participants Wednesday night.

All ASG senators are required to attend the meeting, but deputization is not mandatory. Wednesday’s voter registration training is not limited to senators, and members of some student groups said they also will take advantage of the opportunity to train to become deputies.

Students for Israel is one student group that is sending members to the Senate meeting. At least five members will become deputies, said the group’s Political Vice President Shira Bergstein. She said the push for voter registration is consistent with Students for Israel’s goals.

“In order to get the pro-Israel political voice heard, we need pro-Israel voters,” said Bergstein, an Education sophomore.

Bergstein said it is advantageous to have college students be able to register their peers.

“When it’s a peer doing it as opposed to someone older, I think it brings more credibility to (the voter registration process) on a college campus,” Bergstein said.

After the deputization process, senators will nominate and vote for members of the Student Activities Finance Board and the Executive Committee.

SAFB oversees the financial affairs of A-status student groups, which receive funding created from the Student Activities Fee. It distributes activities fees in Spring Quarter for the coming academic year. In the fall it also deals out some supplemental funding.

Members on the Executive Committee decides which groups should receive A-status recognition.

Several positions on both committees are reserved for students who have never been ASG senators. This strategy allows a variety of voices to be heard, said ASG Executive Vice President Bryan Tolles.