Today is last day for students to register to vote

Today is the last day for would-be voters to register to vote in the presidential and congressional elections taking place in November.

To be eligible to vote in Texas, a person must a U.S. citizen, a resident of the county in which the registration is completed, at least 18 years of age, mentally competent and not convicted of an unpardoned felony, according to the Texas Secretary of State’s website.

Texas Public Interest Research Group — a branch of a national organization targeting college campuses to encourage students to register as voters — held booths across campus.

“I think students should vote because they’re very, very much underrepresented as far as what demographics vote in the U.S.,” said Taylor Thompson, UH campus organizer for TexPIRG’s New Voters Project.

“Elderly people and middle aged people are voting. Anyone who has access to register to vote does vote except for students because a lot of students are on campus, where they don’t know where specifically they can register.”

Students don’t vote, and the consequence has been a lack of representation in government, said Ilya Slavinski, lead organizer of the New Voters Project.

“It’s important for (students) to have their voice heard. Politicians, for so many years, have not paid attention to the youth just because young people have not been getting out and voting,” Slavinski said. “We believe that if students really come out and make their voice heard, then (politicians) will have no choice but to pay attention to them.”

“(The voting project) started awhile ago. We’ve registered almost two million people over the years.”

In this election, issues that concern students are a hot topic and should be on students’ minds, said Thompson.

“I personally think that one of most important issues is education. Every person here that we’re trying to register is a student at the University, and they’re involved in education, and education is a big topic this presidential election. It’s about student loans. It’s about financial aid. It’s about all the things that students need to go to college and have a successful education,” Thompson said.

“There are things like health care. How, as students graduate and move on, they might be allowed to be on their parents’ insurance after they’re done here. Some people don’t know that, but once they get out into the world, they realize, ‘Oh, maybe I should have taken the time to look at this issue and see how it affects me.’”

Today is the last day to vote, but not the last day of TexPIRG’s involvement on campus.

“Our next big thing will be getting out to vote. (We’ll be) reminding students to vote, having them sign pledge-to-vote cards,” Slavinksi said.

“We are working with the University to get shuttles to take people to their polling locations on election day.”

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