The College Republicans student organization registered approximately 30 people to vote last Thursday, as part of a campaign to get students to the polls.
The event, held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Lowman Student Center mall area, attracted a higher than expected turnout, according to David Frievalt, the organizations director of public communications.
“I was very pleased, given the time of day when students are in a hurry to get to class,” Frievalt said. “In the evening, kids were getting to a job or had other things to do. Plus, a lot of kids are already registered in their hometowns.”
This is not the only registration drive the organization is having. They plan on partnering with the Bearkat Democrats in the near future.
“Kendall [Scudder], from the Bearkat Democrats, said that they will partner with [the Republicans] to try and reach a goal of 10 percent of the student population registered to vote,” Frievalt said.
“It’s a bipartisan drive which helps with getting people to come over to be registered.”
It may have been difficult to attract every student because they are a partisan organization, Frievalt said.
“When we were registering people the other day, kids were avoiding us because of our banner,” Frievalt said. “With this partnership, we will get Republicans, Democrats and a quickly growing independent group, without them feeling uncomfortable to come up to us.”
He also said that college students should start exercising their voice early to develop a better political awareness.
“In the last presidential election it was nice to see the younger crowd going out to vote,” Frievalt said. “Even though I am a Republican and they voted for Obama, it’s always good to see the activity by students.”
He says that the drive will possibly become a competition between other universities, such as Stephen F. Austin University.
“I would love for all the student organizations to get involved in some way or another,” Frievalt said. “We need to get as many registered voters as possible, so anything that could help that is awesome.”
In addition to the registration drive, the group is helping to sponsor a Pepsi Refresh Project. The project will help get the Boys and Girls of Walker County a new baseball field. The project is a part of a competition where the public votes on various projects to help decide which are the most deserving.
Information and links for where to vote can be found on the City of Huntsville’s webpage, Facebook and Twitter pages, and the Walker County homepage. Each person can cast 10 votes per day through Sept. 30.