Efforts underway to encourage voter participation among Holy Cross students

Luisa Lora ’08 is the first to admit that she hasn’t always been interested in politics, but knowing that she will be eligible to vote in next year’s presidential election has encouraged her to think about the candidates and the issues.

So when Brenda Hounsell Sullivan, director of Orientation, Transition, and Leadership in the division of Student Affairs, and Katherine Robertson, special assistant to the president for community affairs, offered her a summer job within the Community-Based Learning Program, to increase the awareness of voter registration on campus, Lora jumped at the opportunity.

A sociology major with a Latin American and Latino Studies concentration from Lawrence, Lora’s interest in Student Affairs started as a resident assistant. She enjoys working with students, and the thought of being able to make an impact on the next election — all while learning about the issues — created the perfect opportunity.

During the summer and early fall semester, Lora, with the help of Hounsell Sullivan, convened a bipartisan committee and have been strategizing ways to encourage students to register to vote.

The first major event will be a voter registration drive from Nov. 6 through Nov. 8 between the hours of 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 7 to 9 p.m. on the first floor of Hogan. The drive will take place one year shy of the Nov. 4, 2008 presidential election.

Lora wants the efforts in the next year to focus on two things: why to vote and how to vote.

“If you’re not going to vote and you leave the decision up to someone else than why do we have a right to vote? It’s empowering,” she says. “You put the people into office that you feel will do a good job, and make the United States a better country.”

It’s very easy to register to vote, says Lora.

“Well-informed students will be manning the tables. They know how to fill out the applications which will take five minutes to complete. They will even stamp and stuff the envelopes and send them out,” she says.

Lora says there are several issues that are important to her, including health insurance, the field of employment (after all, she will be job hunting shortly), taxes, and federal money for higher education (she hopes to pursue a master’s degree after taking a year off).

Getting students to vote requires informing them that their future lies in their own hands. In order to do that, each Registered Student Organization at Holy Cross will be able to advocate their own causes during the drive. She envisions, for example, that Eco-Action may encourage students who are environmentally conscious to register and vote to “save the planet.”

“We expect to register many students,” she says.