NU Decides and the Center for Civic Engagement teamed up to host a voter registration open house on Monday and Tuesday for students who want to vote in the upcoming midterm elections.
The center has registered between 250 and 300 students with help from NU Decides since the beginning of the school year. NU Decides, a nonpartisan student group, was founded in 2008 as a campus-wide voter registration drive for the presidential election. This is the first year CCE has collaborated in hosting the event, giving students the option to register in either their home state or Illinois.
“It’s more about getting the students to be involved with the community,” said David Unger, program assistant at CCE. “It’s important to get students registered here to get people involved in Evanston, and it’s a great opportunity for students to connect with the community.”
During New Student Week, NU Decides set up three tables in Norris University Center to help new students register, and the effort continued throughout last week in front of the Technological Institute and at Norris.
The goal was to have a centralized staffed space for students to register, Unger said. Additionally, students were directed to CCE to help with registration in home states because NU Decides did not have the capability to register students in a state other than Illinois, CCE fellow Sam Reed said.
“What we are trying to do with CCE is help in creating a basic standard of accessibility for voter registration and voter information,” the SESP senior said. “It’s not just about getting students registered for this election on Nov. 2, it’s about making sure every student is asked at least once in their college career to register and be given the opportunity to do so.”
Although the general goal is to get all students registered to vote, NU Decides has not set a target number of registered students, Reed said. The student group is more interested in seeing what they are capable of instead of shackling themselves to a specific number, she said.
Communication sophomore Savan Patel registered for the first time Monday.
“It’s definitely important to vote, especially in a place like Evanston,” he said.
The deadline to register for the Nov. 2 midterm elections is Tuesday. Even if they are currently registered in their home state, students can register to vote in Illinois with proof of residency and a valid driver’s license or Social Security number.
Communication freshman Michael DeMarco also registered to vote in his first election.
“I would like to be the part of the population that makes decisions and votes in the nation,” he said. “I think that in choosing who will be in the House or Senate elections can be important, so I think it is important still for the Obama administration.”
Turnout has been good thus far, Unger said, even given that this year’s election is a midterm, which traditionally brings fewer people to the polls.
Reed agreed but added she hopes voter registration will create more of a sea change in the level of responsible citizenship on campus.
“We’ve done a good job of meeting students where they are,” she said. “But I’d like to see in the future a shift in the culture of the campus where students just register and don’t treat voter registration as another student group trying to get them to do something.”
