The Tufts Community Union Senate at its Feb. 2 meeting unanimously passed a non-binding resolution to confront problems with the student voter registration process and to increase active citizenship among Tufts students.
According to sophomore Senator James Golden, the TCU Senate hopes to alleviate and streamline the registration process, working with the university and groups such as Tufts Votes and Tufts Democrats to enable students to register to vote on the Integrated Student Information System (iSIS).
The current prototype would incorporate a program called TurboVote with iSIS. Golden explained that the program enables students to enter their information online, where it is then delivered in a pre-stamped envelope and requires only their signature.
TurboVote fills everything out for you and all you have to do is sign a piece of paper, Jacob Wessel, the president of Tufts Democrats, said. In Massachusetts, you cant register to vote online. You have to print it out and send it via snail mail and there are a lot of problems with the addresses at Tufts.
The program would identify bottleneck times, like class registration period or freshman orientation, in which it would prompt students to register to vote online on iSIS, added Wessel, a senior.
It will make things more convenient for everyone, he said.
According to Alan Solomont, the Pierre and Pamela Omidyar Dean of the Tisch College of Citizenship and Public Service, students in the past have encountered many problems with registration.
Students have some unique barriers to overcome because they are typically living in a community on campus or around Tufts that is separate from where they come from, even if they are local, said Solomont. Figuring out where they are going to vote and where they are going to register is an additional hurdle to overcome.
Wessel explained that current voter registration initiatives on campus are managed by student volunteers. He said that if they did not step up, there would be no registration drives on campus. While many students do sign up through these drives, Wessel stressed that they do not come close to registering the entire eligible student body.
A program like TurboVote would increase the accessibility of the process, would reach everyone and would not have the same reliance on the largely partisan voter registration events on campus, according to Wessel.
Golden emphasized the Senates desire to make voter registration non-partisan.
Another purpose of this whole thing is to kind of gain independence for Tufts Votes and kind of getting a standing leadership going, he said.
Part of this leadership could involve the creation a new position at Tisch College, according to Golden. He added that Tisch College could potentially fund TurboVote.
Were in talks with Tisch College to see if they would agree to actually fund us for [those] $4,000, Golden said. Basically, they would run an application position that would be the Tufts Votes registration director [who] would be an officer of Tisch College, but would be a student.
TCU could also potentially allocate the necessary money for the new program, Golden explained.
Were going to get [Tufts Votes] recognized through the normal TCU Judiciary system, he said. Following that, we will apply for funding as a new group from the Allocations Board, and, hopefully, they will grant us that $4,000 startup fee that TurboVote asks for.
The resolution, which was sponsored by Golden and sophomore Senator Ethan Finkelstein, stemmed from the universitys commitment to active citizenship, according to the resolutions text.
Solomont echoed this commitment and explained that the Tisch College would like to see more students participate in the political process because they are impacted by government decisions.
Anything that makes [the registration process] less complicated, that clarifies where and when and how, I think should increase the number of students who get to vote, Solomont said. As a university committed to educating its students to be active citizens, wed like to be able to showcase the fact that students at Tufts vote in greater numbers than at some of their peer institutions, as a way of setting a good example and proving that, with a little bit of encouragement, students will vote and they will participate.
