 "Photo: Caleb Bryant Miller/The Daily Texan")
About 35 students delivered more than 5,000 voter registration cards to six apartment complexes near Riverside on Sunday afternoon.
Results from the Nov. 3 constitutional amendment election show that only 52 voters, or about 1 percent, of the nearly 5,000 registered voters in the area’s precinct cast their ballots.
University Democrats, College Republicans at Texas and the Latino Leadership Council sponsored the Riverside Voter Registration Blockwalk.
“While we may be different in terms of aspect and policy on social issues, both of our parties and the Latino Leadership Council believe that we all have this right,” said College Republicans President Mikael Garcia. “Whether or not we end up getting what we want, we want to make sure all voices are heard in our democracy.”
Volunteers placed registration cards on apartment doors of the Town Lake, University Village, University Commons, Longhorn Landing, University Estates and The Ballpark complexes, which together house about 6,000 residents.
“For a lot of us, when we think of Riverside, it hits home,” said Cindy Quintanilla, the UT Latino Leadership Council’s co-director of operations. “Students, a lot of times, don’t know or don’t have an interest, but whatever side or whatever political ideology you have, voting gives you a voice.”
Rene Zamora, a mechanical engineering senior and University Commons resident, said he is not registered to vote but that what the volunteers did will encourage him to register.
“I’ve been so busy with school, and I haven’t done anything but school,” Zamora said. “But accessibility [to registration information] is definitely really important, so now with [the voter registration card], I’ll register.”
In the past, University Democrats has focused on registering students living on campus or in West Campus, said Anna Crockett, a co-chairwoman of the organization’s voter registration committee.
“We want to make sure we hit all the students,” Crockett said. “It’s important that everyone’s registered, because students’ voices are usually not heard.”
Of the nearly 1 million Travis County residents, 581,585 are registered to vote. The apartment complexes’ precinct has 4,669 registered voters.
“I think there’s so much apathy because it’s not well-publicized how to register and how to vote,” said government freshman Caren Garcia. “We just want to facilitate that process.”
Members of all three organizations emphasized the importance of the effort’s nonpartisanship.
“Obviously on Riverside, the politics lean a little more Democratic than Republican, but as a club and as American citizens, we believe that everybody should be eligible to vote,” Garcia said. “We just don’t want people to be apathetic, and that runs across all party lines.”
4 comments
There is a lot of apathy or just plain preoccupation with things not related to civic participation.