EVP office organizes Turnout Tuesdays to encourage voting

The undergraduate student government’s external vice president’s office held an event Tuesday to educate students about voting for the upcoming elections.

The event, which was held from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. in Bruin Plaza, was the first in a series of weekly events the office will host. Students were able to take photos with cardboard cutouts of the presidential candidates, participate in a mock voting booth and register to vote.

The EVP office began Turnout Tuesdays to make sure students are comfortable with the voter registration process and show up at UCLA polling stations, said undergraduate student government EVP Rafi Sands. He hopes students become aware of the different propositions of the election, including the 17 ballot measures.

[Related: Bruins discuss methods, plan events to increase student voter turnout]

“We really just want to show people what’s going on (in the election),” Sands said. “For example, Vote for Our Future has more of an emphasis on voter registration, and our big thing is education.”

Turnout Tuesdays are organized by the EVP office, but 36 members from the BruinsVote! coalition volunteered at the event, Sands said.

“It’s pretty powerful to have all the groups working together on National Voter Registration Day,” said Emma Brower, campus organizer of California Public Interest Research Group. “It’s a huge effort to get young people to vote, but we are the largest, most diverse generation in the history of the nation. We have the opportunity to be the largest voting block and outweigh baby boomers.”

At the event’s mock voting booth, students cast votes for Proposition 64, which will legalize marijuana if passed.

Julio Mendez, a second-year political science student and EVP staffer, said organizers aimed to use the mock voting booth at the event to measure student responses for the proposition.

Organizers also included many attractions at the event to get students’ attention as they walked to and from class. For instance, student artist Stefan Dismond played at the event and volunteers offered free Otter Pops and a raffle to win a Fat Sal’s gift card.

Emiliano Gomez, a first-year economics and English student, said he thinks the results of the mock voting booth would not be accurate of California’s vote since it was held on a student campus. Gomez added he has seen many similar events on campus, but he went to Turnout Tuesdays for the snacks.

Aneesh Gowri, a first-year psychobiology student, said he went to the event because he heard students talking about it since he arrived on campus.

Gowri said he had registered to vote with his home address, but thought it would be more convenient to register with his UCLA address at the event, so he can vote on campus later, instead of mailing in a ballot on election day.

“It was super easy and only took a minute,” Gowri said. “It’s my first election where I get to vote, and there are a lot of important measures besides the presidency, such as a new senator, marijuana legalization and background checks for ammunition.”

Robbie Rogers, a third-year art student, said he saw the event while walking on Bruin Walk and decided to register to vote. He added the registration process was easy and took him about 10 minutes.

“I think it’s really important to have registration in a heavily populated area like UCLA,” Rogers said. “It’s our duty as students to vote.”

Sands did not disclose how many students registered Tuesday. He said the EVP office will release their weekly numbers at the second Turnout Tuesday and on social media.

[Related: UCLA and USC going head to head in raising student voter turnout]

Sands added ASUCLA plans to implement a large thermometer poster in front of the student store in Bruin Plaza Thursday to display how many students the office registers. The EVP office will begin marking the thermometer next Tuesday.