By Emily Groseclose
Reporter
November 3 is Election Day and Lute Vote is once again here to help you cast your ballot!
This being an especially tense election season, voting now is more important than ever. Pacific Lutheran University’s on-campus voter engagement team, Lute Vote, is helping students cast their ballots, whether it be via mail-in or dropbox voting.
Although Lute Vote will not be hosting as many events this year, the Rock The Vote event will still occur virtually on October 8 from 5-7 pm.
The Lute Vote crew will pop into classes to share information on voter registration. If you don’t see them in your class, this is what they want you to know:
To register in Washington, go to: www.vote.wa.gov
To register in a different state, go to: www.vote.gov
To request your absentee ballot, go to: www.vote.org/absentee-ballot
ASPLU President Gracie Anderson is currently supervising Lute Vote and has been involved since her sophomore year. She is also known as the “expert” on voter registration in Washington among members of ASPLU.
Anderson’s biggest worry is that students will be deterred from voting because of the controversial decisions made by United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and other federal politicians to scale back the U.S. Postal Service over the past few months.
“My main concern right now is that voter suppression at the federal and state level could be a major deterrent to get out the vote this year,” she said.“From the USPS to our own state elections officials behaving like our elections are somehow unreliable, we are up against a lot. I want to emphasize our effective mail-in voting system in WA,” says Anderson.
The last day to register online is October 23. If you don’t have a Washington ID or license, use one of the paper registration forms located on the door of the ASPLU office. You can also email asplupres@plu.edu and they will bring a form to you.
Lute Vote will host ballot dropbox parties! If you are a Washington resident, all you need to do is leave your ballot with the Lute Vote crew and they will take it to the ballot dropbox at the Parkland-Spanaway Library. If you are an out-of-state voter, they will give you stamps to send in your ballot! Just email asplupres@plu.edu to request stamps.
Take advantage of PLU’s experienced voter engagement team and get out to vote this election season!
