Students register to vote at Tommy Trojan

Students gathered in front of Tommy Trojan on Tuesday for National Voter Registration Day, a nationwide event that aims to promote greater participation in elections.

The event featured remarks by Alex Padilla, California Secretary of State, as well as Dan Schnur, director of the USC Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics; Dean Logan, the Los Angeles Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk; Dean Florez, a former California state senator and current legislator-in-residence; and Rini Sampath, Undergraduate Student Government president.

“A lot of students say, ‘Why should I care? Politics, why would I want to involve myself with it? I can’t relate. It doesn’t represent me, reflect me, my values or my issues,’” Padilla said. “I’m here to tell you that’s exactly why you need to register and that’s exactly why you need to vote.”

Speakers stressed the importance of encouraging young, college-aged people to become involved in the political process by registering to vote. Logan said that in Los Angeles alone, there are nearly 1.2 million eligible voters who are not registered to vote.

Padilla noted that of this bloc of eligible voters in Los Angeles, the largest group was young people from 18-24 years old and that the number of those eligible who are unregistered swells to 7 million people when considering the state of California as a whole. In 2012, California’s voter registration rate was ranked No. 41 in the United States.

Turnout was steady throughout the event, which took place from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Students could also receive a free slice of pizza after registering. At the booths set up for registering new voters, students said that they were looking forward to engaging in the political process.

“The reason why I’m registering to vote is because people our age generally don’t try, and they complain about it,” said Reiana Requena, an undeclared sophomore. “So instead of just complaining about it, I want to actually try and change policy.”

Five hundred and forty-nine students registered to vote at the event. According to Schnur, this number is nearly double the amount of students who registered at last year’s National Voter Registration Day event.

Greater student interest has perhaps been sparked by a robust start to the 2016 election cycle with a wide array of candidates running for president.

“It’s clear that some of the candidates for president have attracted an unusual amount of attention,” Schnur said. “But once students have finished paying attention to some of the candidates, they stick around to participate in the broader conversation. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders and some of the more notable candidates may be attracting student interest, but it’s the conversation about their future that’s keeping USC students involved and engaged in the conversation going forward. They show up to listen to Donald Trump, but they stick around for more substantive conversation after that.”

Sampath, who became an American citizen in 2014, spoke of her personal appreciation for the right to vote but added that there is more work to be done.

“There are still some communities that are disenfranchised by modern barriers to voting,” she said. “So as young people, it’s more important than ever to appreciate the right we have to vote and the power that comes with it.”

The Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk also awarded USC a proclamation recognizing it for its involvement in National Voter Registration Day.

Hosts of the event included the Unruh Institute, the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk, USG, the Korean American Coalition, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Political Student Assembly, USC College Democrats, USC College Republicans, the Asian Pacific American Student Assembly, Latino Student Assembly, CALPIRG, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and Program Board.

Other students who registered said they wanted to exercise their newly realized right.

“I just turned 20, and it’s the first time I can vote, so I’m becoming interested in politics and getting involved in voting,” said Mineh Badalians, a junior majoring in biomedical engineering.