Registering voters main goal of SE Great Election course
by Laura Vatalaro, se news editor

     The instructor for the Great Election Course 2000 set up a table in the main commons of SE Campus and registered student voters last week.
     Approximately 200 students registered to vote during the registration drive, which was the original projection for the day, according to Brad Stevenson, adjunct U.S. government instructor.
     “Students in the course received 10 points extra credit for volunteering to register voters,” he said. “We set up the table from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m, and the turn out has been pretty good, even though a lot of people had already registered.”
     Voter registration has dropped since the 1960s and the actual voter turnout in 1996 was the lowest turnout since 1924, Stevenson said.
     “It is our civic duty to register and vote,” he said.
     The national dead-line to register for this year’s presidential election is Saturday, Oct. 7.  Registration applications are available at the information desk on SE, and original registration forms are available in the library and can be copied.
     Online registration applications are available at election.com.
     “Our main goal is to get young people involved in politics and to vote,” Stevenson said. “I think it would be great if this got people to volunteer or even run for a political office.”
     Stevenson and Dr. Hamed Madani, chairperson of government and current events, will be hosting a series of events aimed at encouraging young people to vote, not only for the presidential election but for local representative elections.
     During the registration event, each voter received a flyer that had a listing of the upcoming elections and the candidates who will be running for each position to help guide young voters to other election polls.
     An election fair will be held on SE Campus Monday, Oct. 25. Three events have been scheduled throughout the day.
     A mock presidential election will be held as well as a mock debate, which election course students will participate in by representing the Democratic, Republican, Reform, Green, Libertarian and any other parties that want to join in the debate.
     To finalize the day, candidates from various elections have been invited to debate.
     “The more you are exposed to politics, the more active you will be,” Stevenson said. “That’s what we aim to do in this course; get students interested in politics.”