UISG is providing students with a resource, TurboVote, that makes voter registration easier.
By Elianna Novitch
With just 25 days until the polls open for the 2016 Presidential Election, voter registration is a key issue on peoples’ minds.
To help University of Iowa students with voter registration, the UI Student Government is providing students with a resource called TurboVote, an online system that allows students to register to vote online.
Young adult voters have always had some of the lowest turnout percentages, even though they could make up one of the largest voting demographics.
According to an analysis of U.S. census data from the Pew Research Center, millennials make up about 31 percent of the overall electoral.
“Millennials are the largest voting bloc currently. We could have a lot of weight with legislators if we voted in large numbers,” UISG Vice President Lauren Freeman said. “On a student perspective, I know every student has at least one issue that they care about. If students went out and voted, they could influence so much with just that one vote.”
This past summer the state of Iowa, through the Secretary of State’s Office and the Department of Motor Vehicles, decided to move voter registration online.
This means that if you have an Iowa driver’s license, you can complete the process from start to finish online. If you are an Iowa resident, TurboVote will direct you to a site that guides you through the process.
However, if you’re an out-of-state resident, you can’t register online the same way.
“The issue for us is that we have more than 50 percent out-of-state students who can’t register online here,” said UISG President Rachel Zuckerman. “TurboVote will allow [out-of-state students] to fill out a form as if they are filling out a voter registration form and then have them select to have it mailed to them.
“From there it is mailed to them in a preaddressed and stamped form that just requires them to fill in their Social Security numbers and signature. They then just put it back in the mail box and are registered.”
An issue that occurs with this process is having out-of-state students remember to complete the second part of the process.
“The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office partnered with TurboVote for a state-wide campaign to get young people involved in politics,” Zuckerman said. “They offered to subsidize our membership contract with TurboVote. All schools across the state of Iowa can get TurboVote.”
This incentive cut down UISG’s cost to just having to cover the mailings, which cost around $1.25 per mailing.
UISG has a goal of registering 4,000 students to vote.
“We have currently registered a little over 2,700 between us and our campus partners,” UISG Sen. Mitchell Dunn said. “With this election, just a little difference is going to make an impact; 4,000 people is smaller than our freshman class. If our entire freshman class shows up to the polls, that could change the whole election.”
UISG urges students to not only register to vote, but to actually vote.
“College students are frustrated with the state of the election, and every day I hear, ‘I’m not voting because I hate all the candidates,’ but the reality is someone is going to win at the end of the day,” Zuckerman said. “People will win up and down the ballots, and someone will hold office at the end of all this.
“For us to change the system that currently exists, we have to be active in it, or it’s going to continue to spiral off. So while I understand why you would just want to write off politics, this is when we have to get involved and demand that our voice is heard.”