Students passing the Union yesterday between 9:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. may have seen Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, mayoral hopeful Frank Pignanelli or other politicians out campaigning in the free-speech area.
Representatives from many community groups and political parties gathered at the Union to persuade students to vote on Monday.
“We want to educate students about what’s going on in their community and we want to register students to vote,” said Emily Justice, director of the Special Projects Board for Associated Students of the University of Utah.
Courtney McBeth, intern manager for the Hinckley Institute of Politics, represented the Institute during the daylong event and said it was a success.
“There was quite a bit of traffic. We had commitments from four or five people to do internships,” McBeth said.
Justice organized the event and says she feels that it is potentially the most important in the series of Rock the Vote events scheduled to take place in October and November.
“It’s the biggest in that it had the potential to make the biggest difference,” she said.
Anderson, Pignanelli, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and others were on hand talking with students.
“I think it shows that [the candidates are] taking the students seriously and they want their input. I think that’s really cool.” Justice said.
More than 100 community interest groups were invited to the rally.
The Boys and Girls Club of Utah and Unity Utah, as well as the Democratic, Republican, Independent America and Constitutional Parties were all represented.
“There was a wide representation here today. All the groups said they did real good [in getting support for their groups],” Justice said.
“It’s important for people to know what’s going on and get involved. No matter what people do, politics is going to effect them somehow,” McBeth said.
