By Jeffrey Pierre / Entertainment Director
The battle between Republican Gov. Rick Scott and Republican-turned-Democrat former Gov. Charlie Crist is almost at a stand still.
According to a Quinnipiac University poll released on Wednesday, Sept. 24 and published in the Miami Herald, 44 percent of likely voters prefer Scott, and 42 percent prefer Crist, while 8 percent say they’d vote for Libertarian Adrian Wyllie.
Election officials and candidates are now looking for new ways to bring voters to the polls.
On Tuesday Sept. 22, Florida’s 67 election supervisors released a report calling on the state legislature to find new ways to promote online voter registration; however, that system might not come into play until 2016, according to a Herald report.
Ashley Reid, the Biscayne Bay Student Government Council Comptroller and senior biology major, also has her eyes set on improving the voter turnout numbers among students; and equally as important, she’s looking for ways to inform voters on who exactly is running and where they stand politically.
On Oct. 27 from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. in the Wolfe Center Ballrooms, SGC will host a Know Your Vote information session, where candidates from the City of North Miami, Aventura and Miami Gardens, will have the chance speak to students on their political aspirations.
“We want to know, what are you doing to improve crime rates? What are you doing to beautify your city? What are you doing as far as education?” said Reid. “Things that citizens on a daily basis think about.”
The atmosphere of the event should be light, according to Reid, but adds that, “everyone will have the time to speak about their [political] stance, and at the end there will be questions.”
Along with Know Your Vote, Reid and SGC-BBC have been registering students to vote on campus. Voter registration began on Sept. 22, and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., members of SGC-BBC will be tabling throughout the Wolfe Center.
“We’re asking the students if they’re registered to vote, and if not, we have a system connected through the iPad called Turbo Vote.”
Turbo vote, a project launched by a nonpartisan and nonprofit called Democracy Works, sends voter information straight to the supervisor of elections for Miami-Dade, Penelope Townsley.
Democracy Works is an organization looking to bring the awesomeness of the Internet to the process of democracy. TurboVote was launched in September 2010.
Students can also register to vote with paper forms, and SGC will provide pre-stamped envelopes that students can mail in.
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