With less than a week left to register to vote, the push is on to get voter registration forms in the hands of new voters. Most people, who register to vote, do vote, according to the United States Census Bureau. In the 2000 presidential elections, 86 percent of the people who registered voted.
Forms are available at city and county offices, libraries, post offices and some high schools. The Office of the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Chief Elections Officer Web site lists locations where voter registration forms are available. The Student Activities Office has a supply on hand.
Rock the Vote, an Internet Web site, and Sunkist Sodas partnered to distribute 1 million registration forms to 7-Eleven Food Stores. In a quick survey of stores close to the campus, a store employee at 100 Clarendon Road in Pacifica said they had them on Friday. While a store employee at 137 Manor Drive said she was too busy to check. The employee at 3961 Callan Boulevard in South San Francisco said she didn’t know what they were.
Rosemary Bell, history professor and Women In Transition program coordinator, said recently, “‘No time’ or ‘not feeling educated enough about the issues’ is a cop-out. People need to get educated because the issues affect them personally.”
The county elections office ran out of registration forms with its return address but had forms addressed to the state according to a county employee. Both types of forms are postage paid, but the form from the state’s Web site requires a signature and postage. For security reasons, voter registration can’t be done online.
Both democrats and republicans are targeting youth. Rapper P. Diddy, Drew Barrymore and the rock band, Jimmy Eat World are some of the celebrities behind the move to register millions of first-time voters.
In the 2000 presidential election, 50.7 percent of the 18- to 24-year-olds registered, and 36.1 percent voted. Considering the issues of war, health-care coverage, unemployment and debt from student loans, that percentage should be greater than the 72.2 percent of the over-65 population who voted, said political science professor Johannes Masare.
Masare said considering that the average life-span is 80 years, the decisions made by the leaders of today will affect the 20 year-olds for the next 60 years, while affecting the over-65 population for only 15 years.
Rock the Vote Internet traffic spurred members of the House of Representatives on Oct. 5 to soundly squash the draft bill sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y. in 2003. But according to Rock the Vote, neither President George W. Bush nor Sen. John Kerry have adequately addressed the draft issue in the presidential debates.
Common Ground, a grantee of the President’s Innovation Award, has a voting booth in the Gallery Theatre, complete with ballots to see which candidate will win at Skyline College. The month-long, interactive exhibit, “What Do You Mean You Don’t Vote?” features the major issues in this year’s presidential general election.
For further information about voter registration, call the Office of the Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder & Chief Elections Officer at (650) 312-5222 or visit their Web site at www.shapethefuture.org.
