New Voters Project targets students to vote in 2008 election

Most college students fit into the 18- to 24-year-old age group, which has the lowest voter registration and turnout rate of any age group, according to an Indiana Public Interest Research Group press release. In the 2004 election, 47 percent of 18 to 24 year olds voted, the highest total for the group in over a decade, according to the release.\nMembers of the New Voters Project target students around campus, helping them to register to vote in the upcoming presidential election. The project is a student-directed, nonpartisan political organization, which is part of the nationwide Student Public Interest Research Group. Members of the New Voters Project look to get everyone on campus registered to vote. The group has registered more than 600,000 young voters nationally since its launch in 2003, according to a Student Public Interest Research Group fact sheet.\nThe Projects Media Coordinator Kate Farrell said registering voters is harder than \nit seems.\n“We want students to be passionate about voting,” she said. “But sometimes they think they can’t make a difference.”\nThe project’s goal is to help students get involved by holding political events, which gets students interested in topics and issues that motivate young people to vote, Farrell said.\nOne way the group has tried to get students involved is by hosting political debate parties. While watching the Republican and Democratic debates in January, more than 60 students, ranging from freshmen to graduates, gathered at Wylie Hall to discuss how they felt about each candidate.\nThe New Voters Project is also planning a campus-wide debate between the college Democrat and Republican groups, Farrell said.\nThe debate will bring the two groups together to debate political issues that are important in the upcoming election. Different organizations from around campus will submit questions that are important to them. The IU Army ROTC will provide questions about the war in Iraq, Farrell said, and students in the IU School of Nursing will be able to ask questions about health care.\nMembers of the New Voters Project also set up a table on the mezzanine level of the Indiana Memorial Union every Wednesday and Thursday for four hours to try to get students to register to vote, said Patrick Ober, project research coordinator.\nOber said this is one of the many things the group does to try and reach out to students.\n“We need all the University organizations to work together to get people interested in politics,” Ober said. “It’s important to be unified on a common goal of getting students motivated.”