IOP Registers Boston Voters

Twenty-five students from the Institute of Politics and representatives from three other student groups visited Roxbury and Dorchester on Saturday to register voters in underrepresented neighborhoods.

At their final campaign at Oktoberfest on Sunday, the IOP wrapped up a month-long voter registration drive with the Cambridge Election Committee.

The IOP’s last efforts, assisted by the Philips Brooks House Association, the Black Men’s Forum, and Students Taking on Poverty, come before this week’s voter registration deadline in Massachusetts. The students registered hundreds of voters over the weekend.

“I think it’s...historic that people may have the opportunity to have an elected official that looks like them whether that means a woman as vice president or a person of color as president,” Executive Director of MassVOTE Avi Green said. “I think that’s inspiring to a lot of people.”

Green trained IOP members in proper voter registration etiquette and eligibility before they traveled door-to-door on Saturday. Green said that people commonly mistake voter eligibility requirements, incorrectly believing that a convicted felon cannot vote. In Massachusetts, the individual can vote as long as he or she has served time.

According to IOP Community Action Chair David T. Tao ’11, the training was crucial.

“People don’t like other people just showing up at their doors—this is where the training comes in. Safety is also an issue. And of course, we want to make a positive impression and want to make it clear that we are not partisan.”

Liesl J. Newton ’11, agreed that door-to-door voter registration in Boston can be difficult. She said that whereas people voluntarily approach voter registration tables in Cambridge, the IOP’s efforts in Boston are sometimes seen as an “involuntary intrusion” and are met with “unpleasant responses.”

Green pointed out that it is much easier to register college students. Education is highly correlated to voter registration, he said, and this generation is “a generation of voters.”

In addition, registering older voters in th e habit of not voting is more difficult than registering young people who have yet to form their habits, Green said.

This year, however, one in particular issue may draw voters to the polls.

“The economy is tanking,” Tao said. “People will see this affecting their pocketbooks before the election. Sometimes you’ll get an issue like immigration that is specific to an audience, but this issue affects everyone.”