News Editor
With midterm elections coming up on Nov. 6, the Associated Students, Inc. hosted a voter registration drive in the CSU Bakersfield Student Union patio.
The voter rally brought several organizations across Kern County together to inform students about what they will be seeing on November’s ballot.
Jose Garcia, ASI Vice President of University Affairs, was the main person in charge of the event.
“ASI is always trying to get students involved in something different,” said Garcia. “I think it’s important for us to be the voices of students but it’s also equally important to have students’ voices heard.”
Garcia mentioned that CSUB was also participating in a competition among other CSU’s to see who got the most registered voters.
“Other CSU’s were doing it so I said why not us,” said Garcia. “I just made a few calls to a few different, local groups to get them out here.”
Students got the opportunity to talk with various organizations about issues that matter and affect them. The United Farm Workers, Kern County Poll Workers, Dolores Huerta Foundation, and Next Gen America were among the organizations present to speak with students.
Garcia wanted these groups to come together because they all have a connection to each other in terms of advocacy. “The theme of this event that I told all the groups is that it’s nonpartisan and just informational. This is a neutral space and we are getting together to inform students on issues that are going to be on the November ballot.”
Erika Russell is a volunteer for Next Gen America and CSUB student who was informing students on how young adults have the lowest turnout of voters. “We also have a survey that students can take and that lets us know what issues they are concerned about the most,” said Russell.
Other students like Rodrigo Saldaña and Anne Zalameda weren’t able to register to vote yet but were obtaining information about how they can volunteer to recruit more voters.
“I found out that we can volunteer and help people who don’t speak English and show them how to register to vote,” said Saldaña.
CSUB English student, Katherine Buys is planning to vote this upcoming election. “I’m here to learn about what will be on the ballots and what are the types of issues that need attention.”
The voter registration drive attracted students as they learned about their rights as voters and received free Subway sandwiches from ASI.
