If you are not already registered to vote, the university-wide initiative Campus Cup has made it easy.
This year the U is competing against all the other universities in the state to see who can get the highest percentage, not raw number, of students registered to vote.
The percent of students registered is tracked through an online system at voter.utah.gov/uofu. If students have not yet registered, it will walk through how to do so and give the forms/website to go to. It will also send a text or email reminder to go out and vote come election day. If students already are registered, they can simply click “yes” and they are helping the U beat the other nine universities in Utah.
There will be a competition between the fraternities and sororities on Greek row to see how many people they can get registered within their respective houses. Additionally, there are efforts to have the link added to CIS to hopefully increase participation.
Not being registered or being unaware of how to register is a large barrier for many people when it comes to voter turnout. So, the state is trying to remove all possible barriers to at least give people the option to participate in the electoral process beginning with our universities. The final date to register to vote is Nov. 1.
The Utah Campus Cup is statewide and sponsored by the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s Office and Utah Campus Compact. The winning school will win “bragging rights and ownership of the Campus Cup Trophy for two years” until it is passed to the next institution that wins, according to the Utah Lieutenant Governor’s office.
The Campus Cup competition is being spearheaded by ASUU, The Hinckley Institute of Politics and the Andrew Goodman Foundation on campus. They will be taking a new social media approach for the campaign.
This election season the U is also moving away from hand-written ballots, which prevents the votes from being lost simply due to a misspelled voter’s name, etc. There is now remote voting, which removes the element of human error and makes it more convenient to cast your ballot.
There will be also be voting on campus this year, at library plaza where they will have food and prizes, so be sure to come out to vote.
ASUU will also be sponsoring an event that focuses on women in politics and the need for more female involvement. This event is not just tailored toward women, but men as well- talking about the overall political climate. More details will be coming soon.
If you feel passionate about voter turnout, contact Kaestle Charlesworth, the director of the Government Relations Board of ASUU, at [email protected] to volunteer for the cause and help increase overall awareness and participation on our campus.
@ZoeKozlowski