Students continue to register to vote as clock ticks

They had to compete with the screeching of stopping busses, noise-cancelling headphones and instantly materializing text messages, but they made the best out of it.

Student volunteers with the Indiana Public Interest Research Group stood in front of the Herman B Wells Library for four hours Thursday afternoon registering voters for this year’s election.

The deadline to register is Oct. 9. INPIRG is dedicating 70 hours to the cause this week between manning voting tables, dorm-storming and questioning fellow students in classrooms. Nationally, the group is getting out the vote on 80 college campuses in 19 states.

Jennifer Terrell, a fifth year graduate student, was helping students register for the second time this week.

“It’s a healthy habit to start,” Terrell said. “For some, they’re not sure what to do.”
Terrell said most of the passersby she encounters tell her they’ve already registered, often with a consolatory smile.

The interactions in front of the library were short, only a few seconds long, as students hustled on their way.

“Are you registered to vote?”

“I have to go to class.” “I just did, last night actually.” “I’m voting absentee.” “I don’t have time.”

But there were questions, too.

“Do I need to vote here?” “What kind of documentation do I need?” “What county do I live in?”

Sophomore Kaitlyn Ammons calls Dearborn County home, but she registered on Thursday afternoon to vote in Monroe County.

She said she wasn’t sure about the absentee voting process, but her parents were going to fill her in.

Ammons said she’s voting because things aren’t that great in the country. She’s leaning Republican, though she and her friends still needed to do their research.

“We don’t really know what’s going on, but we feel like we should care,” Ammons said.

Later, senior Inez Thomas made her way toward the bus, walking by Terrell.

“Are you registered to vote?”

She stopped and told Terrell she wasn’t registered in the state. Thomas just transferred from a school in Birmingham, Ala. She’s only lived in Bloomington for about two months, but she still wants to vote.

“This year I wasn’t that impressed with either candidate,” she said. “I’d rather just stay with who I’m already comfortable with.”
 
Terrell ended her shift at about 4 p.m. She had registered 13 people, and added her forms to the larger stack that would eventually be dropped off at the voter registration office downtown, 214 W. Seventh St., Suite 140.