Students need campus polls

Students lead busy lives and sometimes our culture of convenience is warranted.

That is why the University of Arizona and the Pima County Recorder's Office must work together to make voting as painless as possible for students. The polling and voter registration proposals developed by the Arizona Students' Associated would do just that.

Under the ASA proposals, students would be able to request voter registration forms by phone and vote on campus even before the election. If implemented, the plan would make it easier for students to be involved in the democratic process and use their political clout.

Mass media pushes, like MTV's "Rock the Vote," can raise awareness of the need for students to use their vote intelligently, but these programs can only do so much. Concrete measures, like on-campus polls, are necessary.

While some students may already be assigned to the campus polling place, it makes sense to allow all students, no matter where they live, to cast their votes here.

The Pima County Recorder's Office said it is unlikely that the UA will be designated as an early-polling site because of the low student voter turnout in past elections and because a special site must be accessible to the general public.

That argument is illogical and ASUA has the statistics to prove it, thanks to its Students are Voting Everywhere campaign which helped 5,600 students register to vote before the 1994 election. Students want to vote.

Voting is one case where accessibility counts, and students must demand the ability to vote on campus.

Then we must make our votes count.

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