We are trying to tell people to exercise the right to vote, Jim Pawlak, USG Student Affairs commissioner, said. Indirectly, students are being affected by who’s in charge in any elected position.

Students can register to vote in USG’s office on the third floor of the Student Center. In the past, students could not register at the office.

Pawlak said that if students are apathetic about a smaller election, that apathy can surface again in more important elections.

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Sure, it’s not a City Council election, but it doesn’t have to be just a city election before students give their input, he said. We want to make people aware that this is their community, too.

Pawlak said even if SIUC students are not concerned about voting in this election, registering will make them eligible to vote in next spring’s primary.

Irene Carlton, Jackson County clerk, said if students are registered and plan to vote on Nov. 4, they need to make sure that their addresses are still the same as when they first registered.

Carlton said a student does not need to fill out an entire voter registration form again, but rather complete a change-of-address form. The forms are available at the County Clerk’s office at the Jackson County Courthouse on Route 13 in Murphysboro, in addition to the USG office.

Carlton said that although most SIUC students have little reason to vote in the school board elections, some students do pay property taxes that are used to fund area schools.

USG Chief of Staff Jackie Smith said if students want to register today in the USG office, there is no guarantee that a USG registrar will be in the office.

We can’t ensure that any of us (who can register voters) will be there constantly, because we all have classes and appointments, Smith said. But most likely someone who is a registrar will be in the office.

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Smith, Carlton and Pawlak have been working together, along with other members of USG’s executive staff, to prepare for a large voter registration drive before next spring’s primary. By registering students now, they anticipate that students will be more likely to vote in the primary.

Students could change history, even if it is local history, Carlton said. We’ve had a downhill slide in voting since the 70s, and there are fewer and fewer people voting across the nation.