Student turnout will quadruple, SGA official predicts

The SGA expects about 200 students will vote in the College Park City Council election next month — up from the estimated 25 to 50 students who selected the mayor and two council members in 2007.

Though 358 students updated their voter registrations through the Student Government Association this year to reflect their current local addresses by yesterday's deadline, according to Summer Raza, who organized the SGA's voter registration drive, organization leaders said they are going to continue convincing students to hit the polls on election day.

Last time around, the SGA registered more than 1,000 students in advance of the biennial council election. However, in 2007, the election coincided the presidential primaries, prompting more students to update their addresses and vote for their local mayor and council.

But Raza said she expects a lot more of the students she and her fellow volunteers registered this year to turn out at the polls Nov. 3 — about 200 in all. The volunteers plan to call up potential voters up to two weeks before the election to remind them there is an election and to let them know what district they are in and where they should go to vote.

"Previously, there wasn't a communication between the voters and the SGA and reminding them that there's an election coming up and telling them what district they're in," Raza said.

As they have done in the past, Raza added, the SGA will provide transportation to the city's two polling places: downtown at City Hall and at Davis Hall in northern College Park.

The 358 students the SGA registered exceeded Raza's projections. There were 125 registered by last Monday, and she had said then she hoped to get at least 200.

Raza attributed the better-than-expected results to heightened outreach to freshmen — knocking on dorm-room doors and speaking to freshmen classes.

Students who participate in this year's election will see a more exciting race than in 2007, when only one student-dense legislative district had a contested race.

This year, 15 candidates are seeking to fill eight council slots, leaving a contested race in each of the city's four districts.

However, all students who do not live at the same address as they did when they last registered — or those who are registered at home instead of in College Park — will be unable to vote in the election this year if they did not submit an updated form to the county as of yesterday.

bholt@umdbk.com