Tuesday was national Voter Registration Day and Constitution Day. The League of Women Voters of Northern New York was on the Clinton Community College Campus in Plattsburgh spreading the word.
Tables were set up at the lower entrance to the college and League volunteers staffed tables in the second-floor atrium with voter information brochures.
Several students lounged or studied along the edges of the room. Nursing student Paige Chilton has been registered for about six years and has voted in every election since but finds other students haven’t been as engaged.
“A lot of young people are not necessarily focused on maybe voting at this age especially, you know, newly graduated high school students, 18-year-olds. I’m 24 so I have been involved more in political conversations than I feel like an 18-year-old would be,” Chilton notes. “So I don’t think it’s a priority for a lot of young people and I feel like a lot of young people don’t necessarily feel like they have maybe control over what their vote is going to do or go towards.”
Meanwhile, League of Women Voters Board member Robin Brown was chatting with student Jeffrey Weeks from Maryland about the important of registering to vote.
“If you don’t do it you won’t have a say,” Brown notes.
“I’ve been thinking about it because there’s a lot of things going bad in this country,” Weeks muses.
Brown then suggests, “Try just googling how to register to vote in Maryland and see what you can find out because you may be able to do it online the way you can in New York state.”
Weeks nods, “OK.”
Brown, who serves as secretary of the local League of Women Voters, says the engagement at Clinton Community College is one of a series of outreach efforts.
“We’re getting close to a very important election. People can still register to vote and it’s important to do that and then after you’ve registered to make just as sure as you can that you’re going to go out and do what is your individual citizen’s right and responsibility. Some people have been really enthusiastic. Others are sort of well I’m not registered but interested in learning how to do it,” Brown says. “And I just hope and pray that they follow through and do what they said they were going to do and get registered and then the next big important step is to vote.”
Tiffany Milgrim has been registered since she turned 18. She wanted to confirm the day of the general election and get information about New York’s Equal Rights Amendment.
“I know a lot of people didn’t show up, but I think more should have because they don’t understand and the people that don’t understand are the ones that don’t vote. And you can’t get things passed through if people don’t comprehend what they’re voting for or who they’re voting for,” Milgrim says. “We need more awareness, especially college students. I mean I’m 30 years old. I had children and then came back to college. The younger generations should know everything about elections and voting and high school doesn’t prepare you for that.”
State Assemblyman D. Billy Jones, a Democrat representing the 115th district, linked National Voter Registration Day with Constitution Day.
“We do live in a democracy and I think it is important and incumbent upon us as citizens to register, get out there and vote. Your vote may not be the same as mine but I think it is important that we all are a part of this process and the Constitution affords us that right,” imparts Jones.
National Voter Registration Day was created in 2012. The deadline to register in New York state for the November 5th General Election is October 26th. Early voting in New York occurs from October 26th through November 3rd.
