Campus registered voter total exceeds 2004 election

Approximately 750 University students will have the chance to cast their ballots in the east meeting room of The Station on the Northwest campus from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 4, after registering this fall as campus residents.

That’s an increase of about 100 students above the total who opted to register as campus voters in 2004, when Nodaway County election officials set up voting machines in the J.W. Jones Student Union.

That election, which, like 2008, included a closely fought presidential contest, was the first in several election cycles in which Northwest had a polling place. Campus organizations like Your Voice, Your Choice; Student Senate; College Republicans; and Young Democrats played a significant role in signing up eligible students.

This year, the effort was organized through the University’s Volunteer, Service Learning and Civic Engagement Center, which adopted a slightly different approach for getting students age 18 and above to fill out and submit voter registration forms.

According to Center Director Amy Nally, much of the registration effort four years ago took place during Freshman Orientation and the early days of the fall trimester. This year, student volunteers staffed registration tables outside the union food court from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Friday for five weeks leading up to the October 8 registration deadline.

Regardless of the organizational approach, however, Nally believes the increase in the number of campus registrations simply reflects widespread interest in what many political observers are calling one of the most important U.S. elections in decades.

“A lot of students have signed up because there is just a lot of interest in this election,” she said.

The 750 students registered to vote at The Station probably represent a minority of the total number of University students planning to cast ballots. Many of Northwest’s 5,700 undergraduates and 1,100 graduate students are registered in their hometown precincts and will either vote at home of file absentee ballots.

Like other voters, students voting on campus must present valid personal identification to election officials after arriving at the polls. Such identification can include a current Missouri driver’s license or the yellow voter registration card issued by the Nodaway County Clerk’s office.

For more information, please contact:

Anthony Brown,
News Bureau Manager
E-Mail: abrown@nwmissouri.edu
Phone: 660.562.1704
Fax: 660.562.1900

Northwest Missouri State University
219 Administration Building,
800 University Drive
Maryville, MO 64468

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