Members of the New Voters Project have stepped up their efforts this week in the race to register an unprecedented number of voters.
This week, the project is working full force in order to realize its motto: \10,000 more in 2004"" through a campus-wide campaign dubbed Registration Week.
With the Oct. 5 deadline to register voters before the election nearing, this week provides an even more impressive goal-5,000 new voters in a single week.
""We are more excited this week, definitely more excited,"" said UW- Madison freshman Brett Halverson, an intern for the New Voters Project. ""This is our last big opportunity to get kids to vote.""
For Registration Week, the New Voters Project set up tables in more locations and for longer periods of time.
""We are basically everywhere we figure will have lots of student traffic,"" said UW-Madison junior Rachel Fronk, an intern with the project.
Locations include the southeast dorms and common educational areas including Ingraham Hall, the Social Science building and Van Hise Hall, as well as libraries and high-traffic bars on State Street to target the 21 and over crowd.
This ""blitz week"" marks the last push to get voters registered before moving on to the mobilization stage, according to UW-Madison freshman and New Voters Project intern Bryan Phillips.
""This week is our massive registration week because we don't have much time left,"" he said.
As of Sunday, the New Voters Project registered 6,200 new voters at UW-Madison, the highest among participating universities, and they hope to smash the 10,000-person mark by the end of Registration Week, Phillips said.
Next, the New Voters Project will be contacting the registered voters to be sure they get them out to the polls. They are prepared to call 30,000 students as many as four or five times to ensure that the new voters are informed and ready for Nov. 2, Halverson said.
The project is a non-partisan organization focused on simply getting people ages 18 to 24 out and voting, not who they vote for, according to Phillips. ""Eventually we are going to be the next ones down the line making decisions, so we need to get informed now and get the nominees to notice us,"" he said.
As newly registered voter and UW-Madison senior Kelly Barker said, ""They are everywhere. You can't not know to vote.""
