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College Democrats And Republicans Work Together To Reduce Voter Waiting

Voting
Tim Evanson

College Democrats and Republicans at Illinois State University say they are happy County Clerk Kathy Michael is embracing suggestions to reduce the three hour wait times to vote students experienced during the primary election last month. Joe Gorski of the College Democrats said that Michael hopes to triple staff at the Bone Student Center for the General Election in November.

"There were only eight election judges March 15th and we were one of the precincts with the highest turnout. Just simply not having enough people to handle the amount of voters that were coming in. Making sure that there are a lot more machines to start the day, because, there had only been one electronic machine there from the moment the polls opened until about 12:30 or one o'clock," he said.

By the end of the day, Gorski said there were seven voting machines. Students to register to vote on Election Day have to use an electronic ballot, not a paper one, making machines a bottleneck, he said.

McLean County Clerk Kathy Michael has argued long voting lines on Election Day can be reduced if student voters at ISU register ahead of time. The Vice President of the College Republicans, Austin Bertschy, said his group and College Democrats will work together on voter registration drives in a variety of ways.

"We need to get flyers out on campus. We need to reach out on social media. We need to probably promote it in our RSOs (registered student organizations) so we can have greater civic engagement from our students," Bertschy said.

Bertsche also said recruiting students as election judges can also ease the process.     

But, both Bertschy and Gorski say it is likely there will still be many student voters who will seek same day registration in November. They say the students will be changing addresses over the summer and into the fall and have to re-register. College Republicans and Democrats said they hope to mitigate the impact of that residential volatility by building a culture of civic engagement on campus.

The two groups will address the County Board finance committee Tuesday afternoon at a special meeting on campus.

Hear an interview about streamlining the election process for students.

WGLT Senior Reporter Charlie Schlenker has spent more than three award-winning decades in radio. He lives in Normal with his family.