Statewide voter registration drive comes to campus in the library quad

Joseph Devlin

In an effort to target young voters Secretary of the State Bill Jones will be on campus Wednesday with his staff to register voters.

The stop at Sac State for “education day” is part of a week-long, statewide effort to register potential voters.

“Education day” will take part in the library quad and will include speeches from University President Donald Gerth and Jones.

“We want to target that 18-22 college age,” Press Secretary Shad Blach said.

Aside from registering voters, Jones has also brought his inflatable sumo wrestling suits to provide hours of entertainment. The campaign that was kicked off on Monday at the Capitol began its registration tour on Tuesday with grocery store day. The statewide effort is designed to register would-be voters who otherwise would not stray from their daily lives to register.

“We?re here to show people that registering to vote is easy and it can be done anywhere” Blanch said.

The campaign has a different theme every day and will have Jones covering most the state.

Other tactics will include Thursday?s business and technology day, when Jones will send out one million emails to business and technology employees across the state. The email reminding people to register before the Oct. 10 deadline will also include a link to a downloadable registration form.

Warehouse Music and Borders Books have also teamed up with Jones on his registration crusade. On Friday Jones will appear at Warehouse Music in Los Angeles and Borders Books will display voter registration pamphlets in all of their stores.

Perhaps the most desirable opportunity to register to vote will be on Monday, Oct. 9, when Jones? campaign will team up with MTV?s Rock the Vote. “It will probably take place in LA.” said Blach. “The details haven?t been worked out”.

The most aggressive effort will come on Oct. 10, the final day to register, when the Secretary of the State?s office will be operating drive through registration windows in San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and Sacramento. The drive-through service will be at the Convention Center on J Street, which will remain open until midnight.

The entitled effort, Midnight Madness, registered 4,000 procrastinators last year and 10,000 is the goal for this year.

The office of the Secretary of the State will operate the drive-through service in the loading zone at the front of the Convention Center.