Brett Little (’09): Students for Barack Obama

There are voter registration drives going on at the bookstore and at the brickyard, and you have voter-registration efforts like Pack the Polls, which even go to different classrooms to register students. We’ve also had a representative from the Wake County Board of Elections come to offer their assistance in helping get as many students as possible registered to vote. We can take any number of measures to get students registered. Does that mean they will be motivated to fill out the form and send it in, or give it to us to send in? No, but it does mean there is going to be a lot of continued effort at the local and student levels, because voter registration drive is carried out at that level. Students shouldn’t have a problem – if they want to get registered, it’s easy for them. Being gung-ho about Obama or McCain is what seems to be driving a majority of students at NC State to get out, get registered and to vote.

 

Ches McDowell (’11), chairman, NC State College Republicans

It’s a ridiculous argument – it takes less than 90 seconds to change your voter registration. Any excuses are ridiculous – as a college student, you have all the time in the world. Everyone likes to think they are so busy, but you can make time to register and you can make time to vote. The process – especially in regards to early voting – doesn’t favor anyone or show bias toward anyone else. An hour of time every four years is well worth it the opportunity to make your voice heard.

 

Eli Harman (’09): Secretary, NC State College Libertarians

I think it has gotten easier to vote, and I’m not entirely sure if that’s a good thing or not. The thing about voting – when you get down to it – is that a single vote does not matter. There are economists that have written volumes about this – how it’s actually more trouble than it’s worth to vote even when it’s as easy as it is. You have to stand in line for a couple of minutes at least, when your statistical chance of influencing the election is just completely inconsequential. We think that things like voter turnout are less important than the outcome, so it’s more important to us that we have a just, equitable government. We don’t have this voter-participation fetish. In fact, we think that high voter turnout could become a problem, because the people who win may feel like they have a mandate to run roughshod over people’s rights and wildly exceed what can reasonably be construed as their authority. It has gotten easier for students to register and to vote, but we’re less concerned with those issues as we are with basic questions such as “Is what the government is doing just, and does it make sense from an economic point of view?”

Any vote is essentially thrown away. One vote doesn’t really make a difference. But, to the extent that you are going to vote, it seems to me that voting for someone who you don’t actually want to win is probably more of a waste of a vote than voting for a third-party candidate whom you like a whole lot more, but you know isn’t going to win. If you are voting for someone because they are a lesser of two evils – giving that your vote is not going to influence the outcome – surely that’s a wasted vote. Voting for someone you don’t even like, because they are a little better than another guy? Go ahead and vote with a conscience – let your vote reflect what you actually believe.

 

Dr. Andrew J. Taylor, professor and chair of the Department of Political Science at NC State University

I think there are a couple things that are going to make that argument irrelevant. We’ve eased registration requirements with one-stop voting, and there are groups out there that really want to help people with their voter registration. That’s made it much easier for students. Secondly, students are much more motivated to participate, so they seek out information and make sure they are doing everything right in order to participate. I think the combination of the ease by which registration and voting are presented to us these days and the motivation of the students has meant that these things really aren’t barriers at the moment.

 

NC State Presidential Experts

North Carolina State University experts can provide clear insights into the pending general election and a host of key issues that will face the presidential contenders.