At the end of the first day of early voting, about 50 UF students met up to learn about common misconceptions at the polls during a discussion Monday night.
The talk, hosted by multicultural fraternity Phi Beta Sigma, was meant to address election issues from a racial and historical perspective, said William Washington, the event's coordinator.
The fraternity hosted the event as part of its week to collect school supplies for Hope for Haiti, a nonprofit student organization.
Earlier in the day, the fraternity collected supplies for Haitian school children on Turlington Plaza.
Edmund Kellerman, a UF professor, lectured for most of the discussion.
Kellerman showed the audience his extensive collection of political campaign buttons, some of which came from the campaigns of Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and Richard Nixon.
He also emphasized the importance of young people turning out to vote.
"One of the things I wanted to get across to you is that your vote matters," he said.
Jacy C. Jones, a UF sophomore, said she came to the event to be more informed about the candidates.
"I've always heard about the election from a multicultural perspective, but I came here to hear about it from a black perspective," Jones said.
Kellerman said in an interview that it is important to discuss the election from a racial perspective because there have been allegations of minority disenfranchisement in the last two elections.
He said when voter rolls are purged, minorities and low-income voters are disproportionately affected. He said it is important to urge supervisors of elections not to update the rolls too close to election days so the databases are accurate.
Kellerman said having optical scanners and a paper trail for votes helps ensure that all votes will be counted.
