WKU hosts voting drives on National Voter Registration Day

Today is National Voter Registration Day and officials on Western Kentucky University’s campus are working to get the youngest generation excited about just that.

With just a few weeks to go until the November midterm elections, throughout the country, voter registration drives are being held but to organizers at WKU, this isn’t just a one day initiative.

“Political Engagement Project is an initiative by the university that makes sure our students are informed about the political process and informed about different issues so that when they go out to vote, they can make an informed decision,” Saundra Ardrey, WKU professor and director of The Political Engagement explains.

Part of that project means getting the youngest generation interested and excited to vote.

“While they are the biggest voting block they don’t activate that. They don’t vote. We’re talking about higher education benefits, were talking about job opportunities, so these are the kinds of things that young people just starting out in their careers need to be aware of and need to have an influence on. One of things that we do is have fun activities. We make it relevant for them. We have parties, we have pizza parties, those kinds of things that get students interested.

Getting them excited she says, isn’t always an easy job but it’s an important one.

“I have seen that our young people are really active during the presidential season but then they too fall off during the midterm elections, but it’s these midterm elections where we actually vote for our congressmen and our state and local folks, and so those are the resources and the benefits that are closest to us so we really do need to get our young people involved in that.”

The deadline to register to vote in Kentucky is Tuesday, October 9th.

Kentuckians can easily register and update their registration at www.vote.org County clerks’ offices throughout Kentucky will also accept online and paper applications until 4 p.m. local time on October 9th. Mail-in voter registration applications must be postmarked by Oct. 9th.