Feb. 4, 2004
Capturing the Vote
GW Votes Looks to Land 100 Percent Student
Voter Registration
By Thomas
Kohout
One hundred percent, the whole enchilada. When it comes to registering
student voters on the campus of The George Washington University, anything
less is second best. That means second fiddle to Student Association Vice
President Edward Buckley and Assistant Vice President for Government Affairs
Bernard Demczuk who are heading up the largest voter registration drive
in campus history GW Votes.
The registration drive that kicked off last fall at the Foggy Bottom Block
Party has but one mission registering every GW student either
to vote here in Washington, DC, or in their home state. Democrat, Republican
or Independent, it doesnt matter. The only thing GW Votes is after
is civic participation, and to Buckley and Demczuk that starts with voting.
Buckley and Demczuk have been working closely on this project since late
last spring, after Demczuk turned to the Student Association (SA) to try
and boost student civic participation. It was during those remarks that
Demczuk hit upon the 100 percent registration goal.
It just clicked, 100 percent, why not recalled Demczuk, dismissing
the idea that just because it hasnt been accomplished before that
it cant happen at GW.
From there Buckley and SA President Kristopher Hart sat down to develop
a plan to achieve the daunting task.
The early goal set by the duo was for GW Votes to register 2,000 students
over the 200304 academic year. They hoped to build interest in the
project throughout the fall semester, possibly attract as many as 800
new voters, and then expand their efforts in the spring with an eye towards
an additional 1,200 students. So far their success has exceeded all expectations.
In the fall semester GW votes registered 1,117 students.
We thought we were being optimistic, but it turns out we low-balled,
said Buckley regarding the 2,000 new-voter goal. In a school like
this, thats quite impressive because you would think that quite
a few students would be registered already.
A collaboration between GW Votes and more than a dozen student organizations,
including the the Black Student Union, College Democrats, College Republicans,
Program Board, GW Chapter of the NAACP and Jewish Student Alliance, has
been crucial to the projects success. Rather than investing limited
time and resources to host registration events, the partnership has enabled
GW Votes to piggy-back on the activities and efforts of these and other
campus groups. During key campus activities such as the Oct. 26 block
party held by the Foggy Bottom community group FRIENDS, Kweisi Mfumes
address to the GW NAACP or the recent State of the Union rally hosted
by the College Republicans, GW Votes was on hand with registration forms
at the ready.
Our approach has been two-pronged, Buckley explained. First
bring them to us. Weve done that by working through attractive events.
The second part is bringing it to them, actually go to the dorms and knock
on the doors.
In November GW Votes held its first Dorm Storm, during which
volunteers knocked on the door of every freshman student on campus. Former
DC Mayor Marion Barry was on hand to pump up the crowd of 200 volunteers
before hand, getting them ready for their task. The event resulted in
nearly 500 registrations.
Through the spring semester GW Votes will continue to position itself
at campus events, culminating in a week-long push in April loosely timed
with the tax deadline. Buckley hopes to attract several congressmen as
well as local DC leaders such as the mayor, members of the city council
and members of the ANC during the week to talk about issues that are affecting
college students.
After the spring semester GW Votes will direct its efforts toward Colonial
Inauguration and then launch straight into more dorm storms when students
return in the fall. When the registration deadline for the 2004 election
passes in October, the project will concentrate on getting these new voters
to the polls, or assisting them with filing absentee ballots. GW Votes
is working on developing a way to make absentee balloting easier. Following
the November election, Buckley expects GW Votes to have developed a system
future volunteers can follow to mobilize the student body to get people
registered.
This is a huge pool from which to pull, said Buckley, explaining
the GW Votes motto Its Our Time in History.
Every four years there is a group that says We won this election.
If we exercise the kind of potential we have, this could be the biggest
political sea change since the Nixon southern strategy.
Send feedback to: bygeorge@gwu.edu
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