GUSA, Political Groups Launch Registration Drive

As election day approaches, the Georgetown University Students Association, College Democrats and College Republicans are teaming up to register students to vote.

Registration drives will be held throughout the fall leading up to election day on November 6, with a planned drive every day during the last week of September and the first week of October, according to GUCR President Maggie Cleary (COL ’14). The drives will allow students to register for a specific political party or remain independent.

“Any group that wishes to be involved can be,” GUCR President Maggie Cleary (COL ’14) said. “This is a forward push to register no matter the party affiliation.”

College Democrats Director of Communications Trevor Tezel (SFS ’15) echoed this sentiment.

“Voter registration is a very bipartisan thing. It is something we have joined with [College Republicans] in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” he said.

To speed the registration process, GUSA has provided software called Turbovote that allows students to vote at their local polling locations or have a mail-in absentee ballot sent to their university address.

“We’re working with College Dems and College Republicans, … to incorporate Turbovote because Turbovote works with everything,” GUSA President Clara Gustafson (SFS ’13) said about the new technology.

In conjunction with the student-led registration efforts, University Registrar John Pierce sent out an email last week encouraging students to vote and providing information on the registration process.

“The university encourages all students who are eligible to vote in this season's elections to do so,” he wrote.