While many students move away from home to attend college, they have multiple options to participate in politics through voting.
Students can vote from the UCLA campus by reregistering with the Los Angeles County Registrar’s office or registering for the first time, but students who want to vote in their home county and students who do not wish to reregister can vote through absentee ballots.
Student activists, however, said they believe the needs of students would be heard best by voting on campus.
“If we have 5,000 students in one district, a congressman will have to listen to us. … We are more powerful than if we were spread out all over,” said Lauren Macheski, an alumna and a former director in the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s external vice president’s office, in a previous interview.
Claire Conlon, communications director for the California Democratic Party, said absentee ballots allow students flexibility in voting by giving voters a couple of weeks to turn in their ballots.
The process to request an absentee ballot is simple, said Grace Chavez, spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Registrar of Voters.
“If a person wants to request an absentee ballot, all they have to do is write to the registrar office … indicating that they would like to receive an absentee ballot, and they would state for which election,” she said, adding that requests can also be made online at the registrar’s office Web site: lavote.net.
She said voters can request a ballot as early as 60 days before or as late as seven days before an election, and the registrar’s office will then send out the absentee ballots on the first legal day to do so.
Absentee ballots can be either mailed to the registrar’s office or dropped off at any county polling place on election day.
Chavez said voters have to request an absentee ballot for every election unless they are permanent absentee voters.
“Under state law, any voter can apply for permanent absentee voter status, but if you’re a college student, I’m not quite certain if that would behoove them,” she said. “Once they graduate, they must be sure to register in their home state.”
Hector Barajas, communications director for the California Republican Party, said midterms and papers can make it difficult for students to vote on election day.
Students can fit voting into their schedules by using absentee ballots, but he said it is vital for students to have a voice in elections.
“The registrar of voters can mail the ballots to students in their dorm, their fraternity house, or to the apartment they have near campus, and they will also have ample time with which they can send in their vote,” he said.
Barajas said he believes it is very important for students to take elections seriously.
“I think the important thing that the students need to realize is that everything around them, everything they deal with on a daily basis, is in some way or somehow affected by elected officials,” he said.
He said student participation in voting is especially important because the presidential primary election is coming up in February.
“For many of our students, this will be (their) next leader during the time that they’re in college,” Barajas said.
He added that there are also elections for mayor, city council and state senate, among others, which affect students.
“There are elections for curriculum decisions, how they’re going to allocate resources to higher education, and certain individuals will make determinations as to whether there will be additional tax burdens on industries which may limit the amount of jobs available for graduates,” Barajas said.
“For example, if the government increases the malpractice insurance for doctors, that may affect the number of jobs that go into the medical field,” he said.
Barajas said that in the past six years, there has been a 90 percent fee increase for students in the California State University and University of California systems.
“If we are going to see an increase in fees, we have a vote through our ballot box for elected individuals who have the best interests of students at heart,” he said.
Students can also choose to vote while at UCLA by registering or reregistering to vote with their on-campus address and voting at one of seven different polling places on and around campus.
Carey Shenkman, a third-year mathematics and global studies and philosophy student, said he believes an absentee ballot could be useful for students who study abroad and travel, but it is important for younger voters to voice their opinions, because older citizens often comprise the majority of voters.
He said he has voted at a residence hall polling place with other college students.
“It’s a very patriotic atmosphere,” Shenkman said. “It was almost like donating blood, except instead of donating blood it is donating political support.”
He said he believes it is important for students to vote not just to ensure they get a quality college education but to reduce college tuition as well.
“College students should really be aware of what the candidates’ stances are on fee increases,” he said.