Registering to vote is not always a top priority for busy students balancing extracurriculars with classes and work.
“The process just takes so long that people give up,” said Hazal Ebinc, a 21-year-old criminology and law, and political science senior. She is the communications director of the Bob Graham Center Public Service Council. “Once you have that bad taste in your mouth, you can feel kind of hopeless.”
The Bob Graham Center for Public Service, with the help of other civic-minded students, is attempting to change that today, National Voter Registration Day. The center will host its Swing the State: Voter Registration Roundup event from noon to 5 p.m. at the Pugh Hall Ocora.
With the Oct. 9 registration deadline approaching, the event aims both to register students and to promote political awareness. A marathon of “The West Wing” will be shown on a big screen, and refreshments will be provided.
TurboVote, an online voter registration service UF adopted this summer, will be available to get students registered quickly and easily.
Shelby Taylor, digital/communications director for the Graham Center, said TurboVote’s digital platform will make the voting process easier for students to understand.
According to TurboVote’s website, the service’s goal is to streamline the voting process by registering people to vote or updating their voter registration, getting absentee ballots and helping them vote by mail. It also sends reminders so people do not forget to vote.
“TurboVote kind of gets through all the red tape and does the hard work for you,” Taylor said.
She said she believes that strong partisanship has made many students disinterested in political participation.
“Young people are really turned off at the divisiveness of political issues unless it will impact them directly,” Taylor said. “They also see two sides battling but not a lot of resolution or compromise being built.”
She said the center’s main goal: to educate students on issues and encourage them to become active citizens.
Kelly MacLellan, a 21-year-old journalism senior and internal vice president for the Gator Coalition for Civic Engagement, said she agreed that the event should help students become more politically engaged.
The Gator Coalition for Civic Engagement acts as “foot soldiers and the voice of the Bob Graham Center” by helping connect leaders of student organizations and getting students interested in politics, MacLellan said.
The coalition will be tabling at the event, and all students are invited to find out more about the organization and how they can join.
Morena Hadziselimovic, president of the Bob Graham Center Public Service Council, said the Swing the State event will act as a stepping stone for students to become involved in the political process.
“I don’t think only one day will make a huge difference,” said the 22-year-old political science senior. “But if you can get one more person registered on that day, then you’ve done your job.”
Sport management sophomore Joe DaSilva, 19, helps Rolanda Charles, 18, get registered to vote on Monday afternoon.
