Diane Brown
Executive Director, Arizona PIRG
Executive Director, Arizona PIRG
Arizona PIRG
As of 6:00 PM MST, still an hour before the close of polls, the Arizona Student Vote Coalition has held one-on-one conversations with over 9,600 students about voting in the week leading up to Election Day. An amazing 2,180 of these contacts have been made today, on Election Day. Students across the state formed the Arizona Student Vote Coalition to make sure that students and the issues that they care about receive attention during the 2006 Election.
“Students are still streaming to the polls. It is obvious that students are excited about voting, and engaged on the issues,” said Imran Kirkland late this afternoon, an Arizona Students’ Association Board Member and student at ASU West.
The Arizona Student Vote Coalition mobilized voters by focusing on grassroots methods such as tabling on-campus, canvassing residence halls and student neighborhoods, and making reminder phone calls to students before election day. Research has shown that young people are much more likely to vote when they are asked to do so by a peer.
“Many of the students I spoke to were bringing more forms of identification than required just to be sure that they would be allowed to vote,” stated Isaac Kimes, an Arizona PIRG Intern and ASU Tempe student.
Youth voter turnout increased significantly during the last election cycle. Among people aged 18-24 across the country, voter turnout increased 11 percentage points between the 2000 and 2004 elections, while the overall electorate showed a 4 percentage point increase. In Arizona in 2004, turnout among 18-24 year-olds increased an impressive 17 percentage points. This year the Arizona Student Vote Coalition hopes to increase turnout amongst 18-24 year-olds over the 2002 midterm election, in which 11% of 18-24 year olds turned out to vote in Arizona.
“Students really could have an impact on this election. I’d like to think that we are the ‘X-factor’ in many of the competitive races,” said Kimes.
The Arizona Student Vote Coalition is comprised of the Arizona Students’ Association (ASA), the Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG), and the university student governments. The Arizona Student Vote Coalition registered over 4,000 students to vote this fall, and did extensive outreach to students to educate them on the candidates and issues prior to the election. The coalition focused on turning out students to vote at Northern Arizona University; the University of Arizona; and the Tempe, West, Downtown, and Polytechnic campuses of Arizona State University.
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A project of:
Arizona Students’ Association (ASA)
Arizona Public Interest Research Group (Arizona PIRG)
Undergraduate Student Government at Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus (USG)
Graduate and Professional Student Association at Arizona State University at the Tempe Campus (GPSA)
Associated Students of Arizona State University at the Polytechnic Campus (ASASUP)
Associated Students of Arizona State University at the West Campus (ASASUW)
Associated Students of Northern Arizona University (ASNAU)
Associated Students of the University of Arizona (ASUA)