Move follows student lobby effort
With the provincial election only a few weeks away, Elections New Brunswick has come up with a way to make voting easy for university students: a satellite returning office in UNB’s Students’ Union building.
Students with proper identification can walk into the office, located in room 118 below the CHSR studio, and vote or register to vote Monday through Saturday up to and including the election date on Sept. 27.
Elections NB spokesman Paul Harpelle said the process to establish an office on campus began after the 2006 election when student groups wanted to make voting more accessible for youth.
“If you go back to 2006, the level of participation of voters 18 to 24 was low,” he said. “And so we identified that as an issue.”
Beyond having the office on campus, Elections NB has also advertised in the student newspapers.
“We’re trying to get in the grill of students and let them know that their voice does matter,” Harpelle said.
Harpelle said Elections NB does not have a specific turnout goal for this rookie project.
“The expectation is to see whether or not having the physical presence on campus, which definitely makes the vote more accessible, translates into a higher participation rate,” he explained.
St. Thomas University’s Students’ Union is also raising election awareness with its Get Out the Vote team.
“One of the main things we want to do is remind people that there is an election happening,” said STUSU vice president education Craig Mazerolle.
“During the first month of school [everyone] is so focused on living in a new place and new classes, so that they often forget.”
Mazerolle said he also wants to emphasize how much easier the process should be for students.
“Let’s say you’re from Bathurst for instance and you want to vote back home. You just go in there and they print you off a ballot, the actual ballot with all the candidates for Bathurst, check it off and then it is on its way,” he said.
In order to vote, students will need to present a valid, signed piece of identification that shows their name and civic address.
Students living off campus can use a utility bill with their name and address as their ID. Students living in residence will need to ask Residence Life for a letter confirming the address of their residence.
