Frances Chapman gripped her clipboard, took a deep breath and stepped up to another stranger.
“Are you registered to vote in Alachua County?” asked Chapman, a 17-year-old political science and international studies freshman.
Chapman is one of hundreds of student volunteers from several organizations on campus working to register students for the upcoming November elections.
Pam Carpenter, Alachua County supervisor of elections, said about 1,500 to 3,000 forms are received each week. Since the primary, there has been an increase of 5,172 voters in the county, which she said is largely due to student registration organizations.
About 8,300 of those forms have been registered through the Florida Democratic Party, which includes Gators for Obama. The organization has about 100 volunteers on-campus each week registering voters, said Christina Ford, Gators for Obama voting registration director.
Austin Swink, 20, communications director for Gators for Romney, said the organization has about 30 volunteers out at high-traffic areas on-campus to register students.
Other third-party registration organizations on campus include Chomp the Vote, which is run by UF Student Government, and TurboVote.
The process starts on the streets. Volunteers spread out across campus to remind students to register before the Oct. 9 deadline. Then, the forms are collected by leaders and make their way to the county Supervisor of Elections office within 10 days.
For Gators for Obama, volunteers run from about 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. most days of the week, said Ford, a 20-year-old political science and economics sophomore.
At the end of the day, the forms are collected at the organizations’ headquarters tables on campus and taken to the Organizing for America office at 315 SE Second Ave. around 9 p.m. The forms are logged by about seven Gators for Obama volunteers until about 2 a.m.
The forms are delivered to the County Supervisor of Elections office, then back to the state for verification.
When the forms are cleared, the information is sent back to the Supervisor of Elections office.
“The process is tiring,” Chapman said. “But the people are pretty dedicated.”
