|
by JACKSON LEVER
Intern News Reporter
The deadline for early voter registration has come and passed, but not without resulting in a record number of new voters.
According to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, as of Oct. 11, voter registration in Watauga County increased almost 13 percent. In North Carolina as a whole, registration numbers went up 9 percent.
These numbers can be attributed to the “get out the vote” efforts. Every day in Sanford Mall, volunteers have been registering voters.
 Junior political science major Bonnie A. Banner (c), registers to vote on Sanford Mall Thursday. This year’s voter registration has seen record numbers. Photo by James Fay
|
“We’ve been pulling down about 40 to 50 new voters a day,” volunteer for the Obama campaign Linda Elksman said.
Appalachian State University has registered more new voters than any other campus in North Carolina, she said.
Professors around campus have also been doing what they can by requiring students to register their peers.
Communications lecturer Kris Willis asked his students to register 15 new voters.
“Out of my two classes I did this in, almost everybody found 15 new people to register to vote,” Willis said.
His objective behind this initiative was he wanted to get young people involved in politics.
“We’re
learning a little about the political sphere in my classes and I think
it’s extremely important students get involved in national and state
politics,” Willis said.
“But I
don’t want these students to become somewhat involved and just vote; I
want them to get angry when someone says ‘I don’t think I’m going to
vote this year.’ There is no reason not to,” he said.
Willis said he also realized how hard it may be for some students to same-day register to vote.
“If you
live in a dorm, to same-day register, you must prove you live in the
dorm, which can be a little tricky and time consuming,” he said.
Willis, along with other professors on campus, has brought in a large number of new voters.
In Willis’ two classes, almost 1,000 new voters were registered.
There
are over 4,700 new voters in Watauga County, and much of those can be
attributed to the efforts to reach students on campus.
“It’s an
exciting time, and I’m happy to see so many of my students registering
their peers. They should feel like they are part of something
important,” he said.
Trackback(0)
 |
TrackBack URI for this entry
Show/Hide comments
