by JACQUELINE SCOTT
Intern Lifestyles Reporter

Students passionate about registering voters and educating students about the upcoming election are waving their red, white, and blue to increase voter participation.

Senior Spanish major Matt B. Gravatt first began taking voter registrations during the general election of 2004.

Student volunteers (left to right) Andrew T. Ball, John T.F. Carr, Jessica M. O’Hara, John B. Fortenberry, and Kathryn L. Wingo celebrate Labor Day at the Barack Obama Headquarters in Boone. Photo by Christy Bullins

Gravatt joined a group in Asheville, and by the summer of 2004, he registered about 600 voters.

“It was awesome, honestly, to know that I, along with others, had helped get people ready and mobilized to go out and vote,” he said.

Gravatt does not stand alone in his efforts.

Allison M. Cate, senior English major and member of Students for Barack Obama, was involved last year with the voting van that recruited students to vote, and worked alongside Gravatt.

Student passersby were treated with her performances of an intentionally off key ‘God Bless America’ to stir attention.

“I would sit out in front of the library with a blow horn and try to get attention to the voting van - calling peoples’ names that I knew, telling them to get on the van, saying ‘I don’t know about you, but I feel like a great person. You want to know why? Because I voted, and you can too,’” Cate said.

“Having the attitude of ‘Oh, everyone else is going to vote so I don’t have to,’ is not an excuse,” she said. “The future is for us and we need to change it.”

The voting van loaded every 15 minutes and took students to the Agricultural Center where they would then vote.

Kayla M. Combs, sophomore journalism major, was walked through the registration form by Cate and said glassbooth.org was a great resource to compare her beliefs to those of the candidates.

Last year, Gravatt worked as the media coordinator for the Students for Barack Obama group, to register voters.

On the local level, Gravatt interns with the Roy Carter for Congress campaign, registering voters throughout the fifth district and realizing the importance of people thinking not only about national level elections, but also about local ones as both are extremely important, he said.

The voting van as well as one-stop early voting are examples of useful tools to reach more voters.

“During the primary elections, I helped educate students about one-stop early voting, registering to vote and voting at the same time,” political science and international business graduate student Logan H. Roise said. “I also spent a weekend canvassing rural precincts with other Obama supporters to encourage likely Obama voters to actually go and vote.”

Roise serves as the Watauga County Young Democrat’s treasurer.

Roise’s work during the primary elections provided him the opportunity to join in on a conference call, with other student leaders of North Carolina that Senator Obama presided over.

“We [student leaders] were not able to talk during the conference call, but it was still pretty exciting to hear Obama speak to a select group of people, even with it not being all that personal,” he said.

Student volunteers, although strong in their beliefs, did not discriminate against anyone who chose to register.

“I didn’t care whether you looked like a democrat, republican, or independent,” Cate said. “I registered everyone.”

Despite political party affiliation, student volunteers want fellow students to make their voices heard.

“I was, and still am, motivated by the potential that this election has to profoundly affect the lives of our generation,” Gravatt said. “I really think this is a defining moment in history, in that we have an unmatched opportunity to make a lasting change in the way things are done.”

“I think the most rewarding thing is knowing that you are part of something that is the backbone of democracy, and that creating an opportunity for new people to take part in our nation’s oldest and most noble tradition is incredibly exciting,” Gravatt said.

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