Princeton Votes registers fewer students than in past four years

Bombarding students at freshman check-in, the activities fair and outside Frist Campus Center's convenience store, the student group Princeton Votes has registered almost 400 students to go to the polls this fall.

Though the push to increase students' civic participation anticipates this winter's presidential primaries and next year's general election, the number of students registered one day before the deadline was the lowest in P-votes' four-year history.

Over 1,300 students registered to vote in the 2004 presidential election in the organization's first year, and 421 students registered for the 2005 election.

P-Votes co-chair Evan Magruder '08 said traffic at the registration table seemed about the same as last year, but his co-chair, Sarah Breslow '08, acknowledged the decrease in political activity.

"The past three years have had a presidential election, gubernatorial election and senatorial election," Breslow, a Daily Princetonian photographer, said in an email. "This is the first year without a major office up for election."

Melissa Collins '08, P-Votes' vice president for voter registration, said she was impressed with this year's numbers. "While I think that the fact that it is not a major election year has removed a sense of urgency for some people in terms of feeling the need to register," she said in an email, "the fact that the presidential primaries are coming up this winter has kept us from feeling that effect as strongly as we might in a different off-year."

Members of P-Votes emphasized that registering this fall will enable students to vote in New Jersey's presidential primary, which takes place in February.

"We definitely think the New Jersey primaries are a significant opportunity for people to weigh in on the presidential election," Magruder said. "They should do the paperwork now to prepare for this and future elections."

Registration will also allow voters to participate in next month's local elections, and P-Votes members said they are trying to register students to vote in those races before today's deadline.

Elise Schlissel '09, the group's voter education chair, said she is trying to inform out-of-state students about local issues so that if they register to vote in New Jersey, they won't go to the polls completely blind.

During its first two years of existence, P-Votes only registered students to vote in New Jersey. Last year, however, volunteers started registering students to vote by absentee ballot in their home states.

Breslow said that P-Votes registers more students as New Jersey voters than as out-of-state voters, but an increasing number are now signing up to weigh in by absentee ballots in their home states' electoral contests.

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The group also plans to remind students of their civic duty on Election Day by decorating campus with balloons, providing maps to the polls and giving free pizza to voters.

P-Votes will continue to register students to vote after next month's elections to make them eligible to vote in the presidential primaries that begin in January.

"We encourage kids to get to our tables as soon as possible because elections are coming soon," Magruder said. "We hope everyone will turn out and utilize their civic duty to vote."