Our voter registration efforts at Sierra College in Roseville are in full swing for the new semester. Both a Tuesday team and a Wednesday team have been going weekly to give students the opportunity to register, participate in our weekly polls, engage in discussion, learn about candidates, and ask questions about election procedure. In a recent visit, one student even brought his mail in ballot to go over with us!
While our goal is GOTV, we value our interactions with students as well. Our casual polls,which are enlightening (and fun), attract 50 – 100 participants! Examples of recent polls:
(1) Who do you trust? (Scale of 1= lies as soon as lips move to 5 = always honest)
My mother ranked highest, Bernie was next, Google was in the middle, and Trump ranked lowest. (Greta Thunberg received mostly “no opinion”.)
(2) Who/What influences your vote? (Students were allowed 2 choices) Top choices:
Views on specific issues (85)
Family (33)
Candidates’ performance in debates(31)
Social Media (12)
(3) Worst Impact of Climate Change? Top choices:
Severe Weather 15
Ocean Level Rise 13
Food Shortages 10
Other 9 (included Economic Instability & Ocean Acidification)
(Happily, only 1 vote for “Nothing. It’s a hoax”!)
(4) Where are you in your commitment to the environment?
Concerned but doesn’t affect m lifestyle 4
Green in small ways 50
Committed to reducing my carbon footprint but no political action 18
Willing to do whatever it takes to change policy 42
(We then offered information on local issue, Placer Ranch project, or national issue HR 5845 Plastics Pollution Act 2020. to help students be a catalyst for change.)
(5) Who is your candidate? (which will be repeated this week)
Bernie was still #1.
So far this semester, we have registered over 20 people, (sadly only slightly more Democrats than Republicans or NPPs). After the March 3 primary, we will reduce our visits to one day weekly, alternating Tues/Wed. (Dates remaining: Tues – 3/3, 3/10, 3/24, 4/14, 4/28, 5/12; Wed – 3/18, 4/1, 4/22, 5/6, 5/20) We also staff voter registration tables at special events, (MLK day and Be the Change). If you are interested in joining any of our GOTV efforts, please contact Gail Bartlow, (gbartlow@sbcglobal.net).