Doris Jones, associate professor and government department chair on NE Campus, explains the importance of voting.
Q. What is the act of voting?
Casting your ballot primarily for candidates. Of course, it could also be for constitutional amendments as well.
Q. What are the requirements for a person to be eligible to vote in any election?
You have to be a U.S. citizen, to be at least 18 years of age and lived in the state 30 days. If you move from one place to another such as one county to another, you also have to re-establish that 30-day residency requirement. You also can’t be a convicted felon although once someone has served their time, they can have their voting rights restored. If someone is turning 17, 10 months prior to Election Day they can register to vote.
Q. When, where and how could students register to vote?
There are some campus clubs that are doing voter registration drives, but most libraries, city halls and post offices do have the card [voter registration].
You can also go to the Texas Secretary of State Web site and download the form. It’s too late to register for the March Primary because of the 30-day requirement, but it’s certainly not too late for November.
Q. What would you say to a student who said “I’m not voting because my vote doesn’t count”?
I would say that you are deferring the election to older age groups. The 18-21-age bracket does have the lowest voter turnout, and by not voting, the politicians are not going to listen to your concerns. So you’re just giving up your rights … the 60-plus age group does have the highest level of voter turnout.
If we had a higher number of turnout among young voters, we could see some changes. And I think we’re already seeing that with Obama having such an appeal to younger voters.
Q. What could college students lose by not voting?
Their voice because I can think of a lot of issues like tuition or college textbook prices and what may be happening to the tuition tax credit. There are a lot of areas where your voice needs to heard.
