The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Issue date: 10/6/08 Section: News

Media Credit: Lisa Streeb Danielle Bustos, a senior business management major, stands just outside the Lory Student Center, asking students to register to vote on Wednesday. The goal is to get over 2,000 people to register to vote, said Bustos.

One by one, 236 people entered campus Friday and walked away registered to vote, leaving behind them this election season's most successful voter registration drive sponsored by Vote CSU!, CSU's non-partisan voter registration coalition.

The Rockin' Registration event, coordinated by Vote CSU! and co-sponsored by the Association for Student Activity Programming, was the highlight of Voter Blitz, the final weeklong push to register 10,000 students to vote by the national deadline on Oct. 6 at 5 p.m.

On a national level, officials said the CSU coalition rates in the "top ten" of higher education campus coalitions that have registered the highest percentage of the college or university's student population.

Since the start of the school year, Vote CSU! alone has registered more than 3,000 people. Other on-campus voter registration groups, which include Students for Barack Obama and Progressive Future, have registered an estimated 3,000 students.



Rockin' Registration

About 50 people worked or volunteered for Rockin' Registration to register the largest number of students in a Vote CSU! event this year.

ASAP paid Denver band The Heyday to play at the event. The two other featured local artists, Joel Tromberg and Patchwork Blue, volunteered their time for free.

"We wanted to create an environment where people would hang out," said Jesse Casaubon, ASAP coordinator for the contemporary issues committee. "We brought the Campus Republicans to campus along with the Young Democrats so students could stop and ask questions about the candidates and registration."

Students said they appreciated the additional registration opportunity and reflected on the importance of the youth vote in the 2008 election.

"I'm here to register because I want to have a voice in this election," said David Louden, a senior health and exercise science major, who registered at the event.

Continued...

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