Voter drive runs out of gas

The deadline to register to vote for the upcoming November elections came and went Monday, leaving the job up to the Monroe County Clerk's office to file through IU students' applications as IUSA's controversial Project Vote Hard wraps up.\nMonroe County Clerk Pat Haley said her office is having trouble reading many of the student registration applications sent in by IUSA.\n"The penmanship is deplorable," Haley said. "If we can't read it, we can't get it into our system properly."\nHaley's office will spend the next two weeks filing through the numerous applications, but it won't be known how many forms were sent in by IUSA for another two weeks.\nIUSA Vice President Judd Arnold told the IDS on Oct. 3 that IUSA has helped more than 10,000 students register to vote, but Haley said the number of forms the clerk's office has are well under 10,000.\n"If they do, they missed the date to get them here," Haley said.\nIUSA Student Body President Bill Gray declined to comment saying he plans only to respond to breaking news.\nMany of the forms that have already been processed have illegible signatures, temporary addresses and are generally poorly filled out, Haley said.\n"There should have been more guidance when handing out the forms," Haley said. "One group sent them to the Marion County Clerk's office."\nSome students may find themselves not registered come election day because some of the names aren't readable.\nHaley said if a student who registered goes to vote Nov. 5 but is not legally registered because of problems with the forms should come to the clerk's office.\nHaley said her office will not know how many IU students registered this year until all of the forms are processed.\nThe focus of IUSA's project was the purchase of a $50,000 Corvette designed to persuade students to register to vote in the November elections. Those students who registered would be entered into a contest to win the car. The legality of the lottery was questioned.\nIU Dean of Students Richard McKaig said IUSA getting over 10,000 students to register would be a significant number.\n"We would applaud any efforts to get students to become involved in the political process," McKaig said. "The real trick is, of course, they have to vote"