Student leaders said they have collected 175 student absentee ballot requests, putting them just short of a goal to rally enough student support for the potential election of a student candidate to the city council.
Student Government Association President Emma Simson and Maryland Votes director Billy Grayson have led an absentee balloting campaign since the city council declined to change the date of the Jan. 16 election to replace two city council members elected to higher office in November.
The two have targeted the Denton and Cambridge communities on North Campus as well as the University Courtyard apartments, which are key constituencies for the District 4 seat graduate student Nick AragÃn is running for.
“Students really rarely get a chance to change the place they live,” AragÃ^n said. “It would really send the wrong message to the city if students didn’t turn out in high numbers to vote.”
David Daddio, a student who planned to run for the District 3 seat, would have depended on a push for balloting in Knox and Hartwick towers, but he dropped out of the race on Monday.
Students and city residents alike have taken interest in the Jan. 16 election, as members of both communities announced bids for the vacant seats. Historically low voter turnouts have intensified the race, however, because as few as 200 votes could decide the winner in a rare special election.
AragÃ^n has been working with Simson to collect absentee ballot requests since the SGA officially endorsed him last week, and both Simson and AragÃ^n will station themselves outside dining halls on Thursday, trying to collect 25 more forms and any last-minute voter registrations in order to reach their goal.
The SGA plans to file all voter registration forms it has acquired throughout the drive on Friday, Simson said, and it plans to focus its attention on encouraging more absentee balloting and working with AragÃ^n’s campaign.
“We’ve been talking about signs and platforms and making sure that the students know about Nick’s candidacy,” Simson said. “His campaign is going to be making flyers to go up in the dorms tomorrow, reminding students to vote and [about] his website [that] will be up shortly with all the campaign issues on it.”
Maryland Votes remains nonpartisan, Grayson said, and information for any participating candidates will be available on the group’s website.
Grayson said his group distributed an additional 200 absentee ballot requests during the drive on Sunday and will electronically send forms to nearly 1,000 more students. Students will receive ballots at their winter residences and can mail back their votes.
After finals are over, “the onus will be on the student to print it out, fill it out and turn it in to the city election office or to the SGA,” Grayson said.
He said it would be very difficult to tell how many students would actually send the absentees ballots out.
“I wouldn’t even begin to speculate on that; I have no idea,” Grayson said. “I’m hopeful that a significant percentage of them will.”
To keep the percentage high, Simson said the SGA collected contact information for the students who filled out absentee ballot requests. Telephone calls will be made and e-mails will be sent by the SGA in January reminding students to vote.
Simson said the SGA will also use Facebook to keep students engaged in and informed about the special election over the break.
“I think that [students] will play a pivotal role in the election,” Simson said. “For anyone to win, they’ll have to have votes from residents, but I think that students have the potential to play a huge role in the election.”
Contact reporter Steven Overly at overlydbk@gmail.com.
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