Where is Penn Leads the Vote?

The fact that I have to ask the question demonstrates that Penn Leads the Vote has seriously dropped the ball this year. Penn Leads the Vote is the student-run voter registration and mobilization group on Penn's Campus that is supported by Fox Leadership.

Philadelphia had a mayoral election in the fall of this year and from what I could see, there was little to no effort made to register students and encourage them to vote in the election. Granted, the mayoral election was a foregone conclusion, in which Michael Nutter expectedly trounced his Republican opponent. However, that doesn't excuse the fact that very little was done to get students registered. This fall would have been a great opportunity to get students registered so they could not only vote in the mayoral election but also in the Presidential primaries this spring and the all important Presidential election next fall.

It seems that once again, the ball is being dropped as there have yet to be any efforts to begin registering students for the upcoming April 22nd Pennsylvania primary. Even though we aren't sure if the PA primary will be contested, given that the Republican primary is pretty much wrapped up and the uncertainty over whether the Democratic primary will still be going on, we have a clear opportunity NOW to capitalize on the excitement surrounding the ongoing primaries to register students. At the very least, students will already be registered for the general election next fall, which will make next year's attempts to register students that much easier.

Fortunately, it isn't too late. The deadline to register is March 24th. We have just over a month left to register students for the PA primary and the university community needs to gets its act together fast. I was invited to what seemed to be the first meeting of REV-UP “Register, Educate, Vote – University of Pennsylvania" earlier this week although I wasn't able to attend due to a class. REV-UP was convened by the Vice Provost of University Life (VPUL) and brings together a wide range of students, faculty and staff to coordinate the campus efforts. I hope folks in attendance made some progress and came up with some plans to start registering students immediately.

When I find out what's going on, I'll be sure to update you all.

~BT