When Tina Shahreza's family emigrated from Iran to escape religious persecution seven years ago, she realized the value of having the law on her side. Now a political science major at Chico State, Shahreza, 19, is working to get students to vote.
While waiting for her citizenship, Shahreza is volunteering for the Chico State branch of a nationwide campaign to get college students to the polls on Tuesday.
Some say college students don't vote because they don't care. Shahreza was one of them until she started volunteering and learned that students have other reasons for not voting, such as thinking that the government will never change, that they are too busy or that they don't know enough about the issues, she said.
Shahreza is one of 16 core volunteers in the Eleven Seven Vote campaign on campus. The Associated Students Government Affairs Council is sponsoring the local campaign through its legislative affairs committee. The campaign is also sponsoring a forum Thursday, when local parties will discuss their sides of issues.
As Election Day nears, campaign volunteers are focused on educating as many students as possible by visiting classes, providing voter registration information in the Free Speech Area and calling students to remind them to vote.
Political science major Nila Hogan, who is A.S. director of legislative affairs and head of the campaign. She said the campaign wants college students to vote to show that they can make a difference.
Many young people don't vote because they don't know how to register, when to vote or what to vote on, Hogan said.
"People don't pay attention," she said. "We want them to know, 'Hey this could affect you.'"
Pre-nursing major Alicia Beebout, 20, has been registered to vote since she was 18 but has never voted. She avoided the polls in the past because she didn't want to vote uninformed, she said.
Beebout understands the importance of voting, though, she said.
"All the people in office and the propositions affect me," Beebout said. "I'd like to have a say in how it turns out."
She feels guilty about never voting, she said.
"There's so much pressure to do your civic duty, but they don't give you the tools to do it," she said.
The registration part is easy, but when it comes to voting, she doesn't know where to vote or where to get the information, she said.
"I think especially high schools need to step up to teach students," Beebout said. "They teach us to write a check, but they don't take us to polling places or teach us how to fill out sample ballots."
Party leaders reason that youth disengagement is due to a decline in high school civic education, according to www.civicyouth.org, the Web site for the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement.
In past years, voter participation had declined, in the 18-to-29 age group in particular. The center conducted a study of voter turnout in the years before 2004 that called local parties' lack of youth mobilization a major factor in the decline, according to its Web site.
In 2004, the nation saw the highest youth voter participation in more than a decade. This was due in part to a high-profile presidential election and MTV's Rock the Vote campaign, which targeted young voters.
The hefty youth turnout was overlooked because voters of all ages turned out in larger numbers, said Steven Brydon, professor of communication arts and sciences.
"Youth voters have traditionally not turned out, so politicians ignore them and the issues that motivate them," Brydon said.
Jeremy Mills wants to change this perception. The Cal State San Marcos student is the chair of legislative affairs for the California State Student Association, a statewide nonpartisan advocacy group that urged the 23 California State University campuses to get involved in the get-out-the-vote campaign.
He wants to motivate students to vote because it "shows the legislature that students are out there and paying attention," he said.
But the test for the campaign will be the turnout. For students such as Beebout, there is no better time to make a new start and influence change.
"I am going to vote this time around because I have to start sometime," she said.
Sarah Broch can be reached at
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