National Voter Registration Day was spotlighted on USC’s campus yesterday as civically engaged organizations both from USC and from the greater Los Angeles area joined in on educating students on their right to vote in Alumni Park.
National Voter Registration Day is a nonpartisan civic holiday. It serves as an opportunity to register and engage in the right to vote and express views on political matters within the U.S.
The USC organizations represented on campus yesterday included the Political Student Assembly, Trojan Democrats and USC GOP. They were joined by L.A.-based organizations, such as the Common Sense Party.
The event was organized by the USC Dornsife Center for the Political Future which partnered with VoteSC to provide students information about how to register to vote and become politically involved, said Nicole Pompilio, assistant director for the USC Center for the Political Future.
“Say you’re a USC student and you’re from out of state, [VoteSC’s resources] will help you register at your dorm or off campus,” Pompilio said. “Politics and public service affects you for your entire life.”
“It’s really important to be an informed citizen. And that helps you be a better student and a better person,” said Pompilio.
Duncan Law, a senior studying political science, works for the USC Political Union as their director of communications. Law explained that voting and registering in his home state of Iowa can be confusing, and many students may face similar problems.
“As someone who’s politically engaged, it’s always eye-opening seeing all of the issues people are voting on, just from looking up and down the ballot,” Duncan said. “Our democracy is not as healthy as it once was, and the only way to fix that is to try to brute force it and to make sure that your voice is heard.”
Gianmarco Pow-Sang, a volunteer organizer with the Common Sense Party, highlighted the importance of voting, especially for issues concerning everyday life such as taxes and roads.
“I see a lot of overlap between people that complain about everyday things, yet say that they don’t want to talk about politics,” Pow-Sang said. “These are the very things that affect your everyday life and you have more power than you can possibly realize to not worry about the things that you’re complaining about all the time.”
Arija Martin, a junior majoring in international relations, tabled with Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority at the event to register students to vote. AKA’s social justice initiative emphasizes voter registration and education.
“Young people in this day and age are the people who are leading society, and we will be the next people in office,” Martin said. “Making sure that young people are voting on all levels, not just the presidential election, but voting in their local government is also really important too because that’s going to be what’s going to be making a direct impact.”
Makai Singleton, a sophomore double majoring in journalism and communication, spoke on the importance of voting accessibility for young people.
“I think it’s essential because a lot of young people don’t know if they are registered or how to register to vote,” Singleton said. “My vote counts so much because we are the young generation. We take up a lot of the population. So our vote does matter, and this event basically teaches us why it matters.”
Pow-Sang stressed the importance of becoming civically engaged early on.
“The sooner people get involved and participate in democracy, then they are more likely to continue participating down the road. They also constitute more and more of the biggest voting bloc,” Pow-Sang said. “So if they have concerns, it’s a matter of getting together, unifying themselves and realizing, if we just take this one simple action of registering and participating, you can have your voice heard.”