Re-Connecting with the Conference

During the conference, I attended one of the forums titled "After the Primaries, Before November: How You Can Help Sustain the Momentum of the 2008 Youth Vote." Talking with the other students, I definitely learned a lot about various mobilization tactics. It was interesting to hear about campuses from all over the country.

Students came from all over- west coast, east coast, city schools, rural schools, smaller private colleges, and large public universities. The diversity of students was great and I realized that the type of campus really makes a big difference regarding what tactics are used to increase youth turnout. For example, some schools are mostly composed of commuters and that would make it difficult to do dorm storms.

When we were split up into groups and told to brainstorm a mobilization tactic, we decided on a tactic that could be incorporated on any campus regardless of size, location, and so on. We brainstormed a plan that when students were registering for classes, there could also be a link connecting to a voter registration form. What was so amazing to me was that we recently had a bill here in Maryland regarding the same thing! The bill was called the Maryland Student Voting Rights Act of 2008, and it would have allowed students to register to vote when they registered for classes. Unfortunately, the bill was not passed, but it was so interesting that the idea had been exactly the same.

It's amazing to actually see that the great ideas that I heard from the conference can be implemented in a concrete way. Maybe this bill wasn't passed, but it gives me hope for future plans!