AASCU Voter
Registration Grant Project
This year (fall 2006) PACE participated in a national research
project sponsored by the American Association of State Colleges
and Universities (AASCU) and Young Voter Strategies (YVS) at
George Washington University. The purpose of the research was to
evaluate the effectiveness of classroom-based registration,
which has been preferred by PACE, as well as other voter
registration methods.
As part of the study’s field experiment methodology, 61
classrooms at SU were in the “treatment” group and another 61
classrooms were in the “control” group. E-mail appeals to
register to vote was another “treatment.”
Twelve students, under the supervision of
Dr. Harry Basehart (Co-Director, PACE), Ms. Pauline Gehnrich,
(Managing Director, PACE) and student coordinator Adam Meehan,
visited the 61 “treatment” classrooms, making presentations on
the importance of voting and assisting students in completing
the required paperwork. While in those classrooms, 232 students
filled out voter registration forms and 240 absentee ballot
applications were completed.
“I'm confident that of those 231 students, not one of them would
be registered if we had not gone into their classrooms,” said
Leslie Pusey, a student in PACE’s voter registration class
(one-hour credit). “The best aspect of the drive was
letting people know there is an important election going on this
year and that they can vote here at school by either registering
in Wicomico County or by absentee ballot,” she added.
NOTE: This page was written by PACE intern, Amy Anderson.
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