SGB, Greeks work to get out the vote

Pitt students broke previous records for voting in a nonpresidential election this year…. Pitt students broke previous records for voting in a nonpresidential election this year.

Student Government Board representatives estimated that 500 students voted in Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Memorial Hall and Posvar Hall Tuesday. The exact number will be available next week.

In the 2000 presidential election, 1500 students voted on campus, but in last year’s election only 15 students voted, according to Brendan Harris, chairman of governmental relations for SGB.

“That’s pathetic,” Harris said.

“Our age group is ridiculously low,” SGB member Liz Culliton said.

“Students are finally realizing that they need to vote,” Harris said.

The recent budget cuts causing tuition rates to rise and the publicity of the race for governor caused students to become a little less apathetic, he said.

According to Harris, the number of students who voted via absentee ballots was not included in the estimate because it would be too difficult to go through the proper documents. SGB did give out many absentee ballots as part of SGB’s Get Out the Vote campaign, though, he said.

Despite creating a new record, Harris described the number of student voters as only “moderately successful.”

“It was not nearly as much as we had hoped for,” Harris said. he added that until every student votes, the Get Out the Vote campaign will not be a complete success.

According to Culliton, throughout the semester SGB registered more than 1,700 students.

SGB worked with several different student groups to promote voting, including the College Democrats and Republicans, governance groups, the Greek organizations on campus and Resident Student Association, Harris said.

Harris added that making voting a part of Greek Week was one of the most effective parts of the program.

Culliton and SGB member Brandy Blasko spoke to the sororities to encourage the members to register and vote, while the Greek male SGB members spoke to the fraternities, Blasko said.

“We decided to make it a competition between each house,” Culliton said.

As part of Greek Week, the fraternities and sororities compete with one another throughout the year. They receive points for the number of students that they have in attendance or who participate in various events.

Blasko said that unlike most schools, Pitt’s Greek Week occurs during the entire school year. The culmination of Greek Week occurs at a formal in March where the winners are announced.

“We got a lot of people registered so we wanted to make sure they went out to the polls,” Blasko said.

This event encouraged all sororities and fraternities to vote, Harris said.

According to Blasko, to get non-Greeks to vote, the Greeks were given credit for every non-Greek student that they got to vote.

Complications arose about the legality of providing an incentive to vote, Culliton said. However, according to Culliton, since the Greek association did not endorse a candidate or give money to people to vote, the program continued.

SGB’s entire effort was a “massive publicity campaign,” Harris said.

According to Harris, other groups took action, and SGB supported them. Groups brought political figures including Mayor Tom Murphy to speak and encourage students to vote throughout the semester, he said.