Leif Zars, Lee Williams, Rich Carroll, Travis Coombes
Class 2311
Section 014
November 5, 2006
Student Government Association
Student Union Room 302, Box 42032
Attention: Mr. Ryan Worley, SGA President
Subject: Register Students to Vote.
Our group is submitting “Increase Texas Tech University’s Student Voter Registration”
to help guide the SGA in registering students to vote.
In this proposal we review the benefits and reasons to encourage voter registration. We
then analyze two processes describing how to get new and current students registered to
vote. These two processes are sure to be more successful than others in the past. At the
same time they do not require a substantial increase in effort on the behalf of the SGA.
If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask us.
Regards,
Leif Zars
Lee Williams
Rich Carroll
Travis Coombes
Proposal Enclosed
Increases Texas Tech University’s Student Voter Registration:
A Proposal
Prepared For: Student Government Association
Prepared By: Leif Zars
Lee Williams
Rich Carroll
Travis Coombes
November 5, 2006
Contents
Introduction ………………………………………………………………………….. 1
Methods ………………………………………………………………………………. 2
Results
1. Current Student Registration .………………………………………….. 3
2. New Student Registration …………………………………………….… 6
Conclusion ……………………………………………………………..…………….. 9
Charts
Students Who Vote Locally …………………………………………….…..A1
Lubbock and TTU Student Population …………………………….…….. A2
Chart of: Possible Vote Distribution ……………………………….….….. A3
Examples
Texas Voter Registration Application ………………………………….… B1
i
INTRODUCTION
Ever wonder why you hear Texas Tech students constantly griping about how far the
drive to the strip is? Or how about complaints involving housing ordinances? One could
easily find a person who is sour about both of these issues just by walking down a
Lubbock sidewalk. One place you will not likely be able to find many Tech students is at
a voting booth.
As you probably already know, the state of Texas’ college students, especially Tech’s,
has a seemingly unshakable reputation of being pushovers. Middle aged and older people
say that we just don’t care about what is going on outside of our little college world. An
local official in an interview stated, ”A lot of students feel a separation between the city
and campus.”1 So students are not only doing a disservice to their freedom of choice, but
also putting the well being of the city on the back burner.
Recent studies have shown that out of approximately 200,0002 people making up the
Lubbock population, 29,0003 are Texas Tech students. That means if every Tech student
were to vote, it would make up at least 25% of the total vote. In order to pass or overturn
a decision in the City of Lubbock, the majority must have at least 50.6% of the vote. The
25% that we as Tech students could potentially carry could easily sway any decision
made in the city. That is a lot of power.
Unfortunately, of the 29,000 mentioned Tech students, last year’s campus wide voting
crowd barely hit 6004. Apparently, the other 28,400 people couldn’t care less right?
Wrong. After a few simple surveys among Tech students, we found that the majority of
the students are not registered to vote in Lubbock. In fact, with so many people just
coming to Lubbock for a college education, they often get in and out without ever leaving
a mark on this blossoming city. They will remain registered to vote in their hometowns
and other students will have to listen to continuous complaints about driving to the “strip”
for alcohol. Then there is the massive amount of students who are not even registered to
vote at all.
While we were brainstorming about the problem and possible solutions, it suddenly
struck: Convenience. The world today is based on convenience. Fast food, credit cards,
online business; no one wants to do any task that takes too much time. This is where the
Student Government association comes in.
1
The Daily Toreador. Tech students say they're not likely to vote in upcoming city elections, by Sally Gunter, from the web site:
http://www.dailytoreador.com/media/storage/paper870/news/2004/04/19/CampusNews/TechStudents.Say.Theyre.Not.Likely.To.Vote.In.Upcoming.City.Elections1278682.shtml?norewrite200611200114&sourcedomain=www.dailytoreador.com
2
The Daily Toreador, Advertising Information, from web site: http://www.dailytoreador.com/media/paper870/documents/toxjlvyq.pdf
Refer to #2
4
Refer to #1
3
Through much research and consideration, our solution team has come up with various
applicable ways to better reach the student body. Obviously, the first and most important
task is to get the students registered to vote in Lubbock. Actual voting responsibilities
would be left up to the individual. We have come up with several ways to educate
students on how to register, how to transfer the registration to a different location, and
how to help encourage other students to actively participate. This is a very serious issue
with high potential for advancement. Please take our suggestions into account.
METHODS
We decided to attack the problem from two different fronts. We divided the population in
to existing students and new students. This allowed us to tailor our methods to maximize
their effectiveness. The existing population is much more difficult to tackle, but this is
fine. We believe in the long run we will be able to positively affect most of all new
students.
Our polls have been obtained by asking a few simple questions to random students. Any
student we talked to we would ask: Are you registered to vote and if you are, is it in
Lubbock? This way, any student could be asked at anytime. This provides a wider variety
in the consensus, steering away from any biased surveying. Not surprisingly, most of the
answers given were fairly repetitive and consistently complimenting one another.
We recognize that SGA is pretty much solely responsible for the Texas Tech student
voting campaign and we respect your authority. This is why we decided to come directly
to you. With the aforementioned proposed solutions, the emphasis on implementing these
suggestions is based on their ability to minimize money, effort, and time spent. This is a
noteworthy cause.
RESULTS
Part A: New Student Registration
Every year thousands of new students come to Texas Tech University. Each of these new
students must register for classes and meet with their counselor while they are at New
Student’s Orientation. One of our ideas is to have them sign up while they are registering
for their classes or when they meet with their counselor. At the end of the meeting the
counselor will ask the student if they would like to register to vote in Lubbock. If the
student would like to, then they can fill out the form in their office and finally leave the
registration form with the counselor. From there the counselor will leave the registration
forms with the front office. A person or persons from the SGA will pick up the forms
from the counselor’s office every Friday afternoon.
Our second idea to get students registered to vote was to have them register while they
sign up for classes. Since every student at Texas Tech must register for classes, this
would be a great time to get them to register to vote. New students must register at New
Student Orientation. The student will register on campus with an advisor who is assigned
to help them with any problems they may have. Because of this we thought that they
could register to vote while registering for classes. The voter registration card could be
printed out directly from the advisor’s office.
Here is how our idea works:
1) Student signs up for classes
2) Student prints out schedule
3) Computer option to register to vote in Lubbock “pops” up
4) Student chooses yes or no
If yes
5) Print out registration form (basic information already filled in)
6) Student will fill out additional information and personally mail in or leave in SGA
pick-up box
The only remaining step is for the SGA is to turn in the registration information. Now the
new students are registered to vote in Lubbock. This is the best proposal to get new
students to register because it is time efficient, easy to achieve, and does not require a
great deal of effort or manpower. With each new student going through this process and
registering each year, it is feasible that all students at Texas Tech could be registered
voters in Lubbock within four to five years.
During orientation new students are required to attend meetings in order to learn about
Texas Tech. They will be informed about the campus interaction and how the important
processes such as voting will occur. In one of these meetings, an SGA representative
could give a speech to inform the students of the new registration option that they will
have while registering for classes. Some important controversial issues they should talk
about are: making Lubbock a wet city and/or changing the city ordinance involving living
situations. Attached below is an example speech that will hopefully give you a more
specific idea of what we are talking about.
“Hello new students, I hope you are enjoying your visit to Texas Tech and
hopefully you are excited for the upcoming school year. I, Travis
Coombes, am with the SGA, also known as the Student Government
Association. I am here to talk to you about registering to vote. Each year
the community votes on many debatable topics. Turning Lubbock into a
wet county as opposed to the traditional dry county we are all used to is
brought up nearly every year. We, as Tech students, need to come together
as one and help each other out with these topics. They tend to affect us as
college students more than they affect the other people in the community.
The last day of this orientation you will be registering for classes and will
also have the choice to also register to vote in Lubbock. After you are
finished registering for your classes, the printer will immediately print out
your schedule. When you choose to print the schedule, a screen will popup on your computer asking if you would like to register to vote. If you
choose yes, the form will printout with your schedule, another sheet of
paper with your information, and a box for you to check whether you are
registering, changing, or replacement. After you check one of these, all
you will have to do is hand it to one of the SGA representatives or
counselors in the room. Does anyone have any questions? I appreciate
your time, and hope that you all enjoy the rest of your time here at Texas
Tech. See you all in the Fall.”
On another note, with this idea we thought about proposing a giveaway for those students
who registered to vote over the NSO sessions. I have found that students tend to
participate more when there is a prize involved. Ideally, each time a student registers to
vote, their name will be put into a bowl. At the beginning of each fall semester, names
will be drawn from the bowl in order to decide the winners of the various prizes. Some
of the possible ideas that we came up with for the give away include: free parking for the
year, meal plan coupons, books, Tech clothing, gift certificates, or a free iPod.
Part B: Current Students Registration
To increase the number of current students registered to vote, we have formulated plan
for a voter registration drive. The plan is a three part plan. The plan consists of creating
a TechAnnounce display, conducting an interview with The Daily Toreador, and
distributing voter registration cards to advisors. The announcement in Tech Announce
and the newspaper article by the Daily Toreador will encourage students to register to
vote. Distributing voter registration cards to advisors will give current students the
chance to register to vote in Lubbock. All students must meet with their advisor to
register for classes. By distributing voter registration cards through the advisors SGA
will be able to reach all Texas Tech students.
TechAnnounce
The first part to increase voter registration involves the SGA posting a series of
announcements on TechAnnounce. TechAnnounce is the official email
announcement/communication method for Texas Tech University. Every day the
TechAnnounce sends out an email to every Texas Tech Student with announcements
discussing different events occurring on campus. The TechAnnounce posts are restricted
to Tech students and faculty.
To post an announcement on TechAnnounce here are the steps.
1. Go to http://techannounce.ttu.edu/
2. Click on “Post on TechAnnounce”
3. Sign onto eraider website
(Should forward you to http://techannounce.ttu.edu/Announce.php)
4. Enter the announcement and fill out appropriate information
5. Click on “Press this button to preview announcement”
6. Click on “Press this button to submit announcement”
Here is a sample of post that will attract students to register to vote:
Do You Want to Make Lubbock Wet?
To make Lubbock wet you must
vote to make it wet. You must
register to vote in Lubbock to be
able to vote on this issue. To
register to vote ask your academic
advisor to for a voter’s registration
card.
During this week the SGA is
conducting a drive to register to
students to vote. Remember
registering to vote is the first step
in making Lubbock wet.
The announcement will be more eye-catching because it is about an issue most Texas
Tech students are concerned about. By using TechAnnounce, SGA will be able to
inform all students about its voter registration drive. Also, by posting an announcement
everyday during the drive, the SGA will increase the number of students that will read the
announcement.
The Daily Toreador
The second step for the voter registration drive is to set up an interview with The Daily
Toreador. An article in The Daily Toreador would inform students about the SGA’s
voter registration drive. “The Daily Toreador reaches over 32,000 students, faculty, and
staff.”5 The article will also inform students of the importance of registering to vote. To
gain an interview with The Daily Toreador, the president of SGA will need to contact the
senior writer of the newspaper, Beth Aaron.
During the interview be sure to emphasize these key points:
1. Texas Tech students are residents of Lubbock.
2. Texas Tech students can influence Lubbock ordinances such as alcohol sales and
housing
3. The first step to making Lubbock wet is registering to vote
4. Asking advisors for voter registration card when registering for classes could
significantly increase the efficiency of the process
Advisors
This section discloses the details of how students will register to vote. There are three
parts to this section: distribution, motivation, and collection. The advisors play a key role
in the plan to register more students to vote. The advisors will be a part of distributing
and collecting students’ voter registration cards.
Distribution
The advisors will distribute the voter registration printout to students when they come
in for advising. The SGA will be responsible for issuing the registration cards to the
advisors. A week before the voter registration drive, an SGA member with a packet
could be sent to each of the advisors. The packet will include a cover letter with an
explanation of the drive and twenty voter registration cards. Also, the letter will
contain the address to obtain more registration cards,
http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/forms/vr17.pdf. (Example found on page B1)
During an advising session, the advisor will ask the student if he wants to register to
vote. The advisor then hands the student a voter registration card. The student fills
out the card and gives back to the advisor.
5
Daily Toreador website advertising pdf.
Motivation
The success of the voter registration drive relies on the cooperation of the advisors. If
the advisors are not motivated to register students to vote they will not cooperate. In
order to motivate the advisors to participate in voter registration drive, the SGA will
offer a brand new i-pod as a prize. The advisor who registers the most students to
vote will win the i-pod. This information will be included in the cover letter received
by each advisor.
Collection
Once the voter registration cards are completed, they need to be mailed to Lubbock
County Voter registration Officials. An SGA member at the end of the week will go
pick up the voter registration cards from each advisor. The advisor will put the
registration cards in a folder included in the information packet. The SGA member
will then keep tally of the number of students registered by that advisors for the prize.
The SGA will then mail the registration cards to this address:
Elections Administrator
Dorothy Kennedy
P.O. Box 10536, Lubbock 79408
CONCLUSIONS
In order to wrap up our proposal, we would first like to express our gratitude towards you
for your time. The reputation Tech students have been given in regards to politics and
voting is only somewhat deserved. In today’s society, everything we know is based on
efficiency and convenience. It has gotten to be too inconvenient for many people to
express their opinions on controversial issues. Although somewhat disheartening, it is the
responsibility of the system to keep up with the times. Anything that could be done to
make voting more convenient would exponentially increase the voter turnout. The
proposed solutions hold promise for success in our shared goal.
As Tech students, our solution team understands the difficulty of changing a process in
the conservative city of Lubbock. Through the research we have carried out, we have an
even better understanding of what it would actually take to implement something new.
After analyzing the previous statistics and the self-conducted surveys, we have
determined that there is a legitimate problem. The good news is that there are several
applicable solutions that could be implemented with minimal effort, money, and most
importantly, time. You know the problem as well as every other Lubbock resident. All
we are asking of you is open-minded consideration towards our proposed solutions. We
firmly believe that with adequate cooperation, Texas Tech could gain a more powerful
voice in the city we live in. We really appreciate your time and if you have any questions
please contact any one of us. Thank you.
Students Who Vote Localy
7%
Will Vote
Will not vote
93%
This chart shows how many students actually participate in Lubbock County voting. A
poll was taken by our group asking “Will you be participating in any local voting?” We
received thirty answers. Of those thirty people only two had plans to vote.
Source: Poll by group.
Question: “Will you be participating in any local voting?”
Results: No: 28, Yes: 2
A1
Lubbock and TTU Student Population
Student Population
Lubbock Population
12%
88%
This chart shows the population of Texas Tech students in relation to the overall
population of Lubbock County. As you can see students at Texas Tech make up 12
percent of the population. This 12 percent represents 29,000 people who are virtually
unheard of in Lubbock’s political world.
Source:
Student Population: http://www.depts.ttu.edu/scc/api.asp?id=sp
Lubbock Population: http://lubbock.areaconnect.com/statistics.htm
Student Population: 29,000
Lubbock Population: 199,564
A2
Possible Vote Distribution
Non Student Voter Turnout
Plausible Student Voter Turnout
25%
75%
This chart shows the potential effect the students of Texas Tech could have in the county
of Lubbock if they all voted. It is reported that only 36 to 39 percent of the population of
Lubbock Vote, this equates to approximately 87,000 voters. In the featured chart, we
display the 39% of voters in comparison to the entire population of students at Texas
Tech.
Sources:
Lubbock County vote turnout:
http://gis.geog.ttu.edu/arch/PDFs/Voter%20turnout%20above%20and%20below%20mea
n.pdf
36% to 39% of the population votes in Lubbock.
A3