Half of registered students go to polls

At UCLA, more than half of student registered voters turned out to vote during the general election on Tuesday.

Jesse Melgar, the external vice president of USAC, said as of 6 p.m. Tuesday, his office reported that 55 percent of registered UCLA voters turned out to vote at the dormitories and at three of the off-campus locations in the Westwood Village apartments.

“By the time we check the polls, we estimate it’ll be about 65 percent of registered UCLA students who voted,” he said.

Jennifer Knox, the organizing director for the University of California Student Association, said there were 6,536 students registered to vote at the UCLA dormitories this year, compared to the 4,239 students during the 2004 election.

UCLA students were among a high number of registered voters who turned out to vote in Los Angeles County.

According to the Los Angeles Times, a record 82 percent of registered voters turned out to vote on Election Day in L.A. County.

This marks the highest voter turn-out since 1968, when 86 percent of registered Los Angeles county voters turned up at the polls.

Knox said in the 2004 election only 68 percent of college students state-wide voted, but overall state voter turn-out was 76 percent.

She said her organization formed a voting coalition with student organizations at every university in the University of California school system to register students to vote and make sure they turned out on Election Day.

Knox said the coalition registered more than 40,000 students across the UC system.

Melgar said the coalition registered 8,519 UCLA students to vote.

“Our campaign began with orientation tables in the summer,” he said.

Melgar said the push to register voters continued into the school year.

“Every day we had something on Bruin Walk,” he said. “Pretty much wherever people were was fair game and we’ve been working tirelessly on that.”

The voting coalition registered 2,102 students on Oct. 20 alone, the last day for voters to register in California, Melgar said.

He said the coalition was nonpartisan and was a collaborative effort of many student groups.

“These included the UCLA Office of Residential Life, the Graduate Student Union, Bruin Republicans, Bruin Democrats, various cultural groups and any entity on campus which was active and interested in engaging the student body,” Melgar said.

Knox said she believes students may have a harder time voting because they have to reregister to vote every time they move.

“There are barriers to students voting and we’re overcoming that this year,” she said.

Knox said she believes there was a big turn-out of young voters during the 2008 election.

“There’s just an energy with young people that their voice matters in this election,” Knox said.

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