Students make deals to get others to vote
If anyone is not planning on voting in the upcoming elections, several USU students are willing to go to great lengths to get them change their minds.
The students are planning to do favors for students who, in exchange, must agree to vote in November, said Mak Kahn, who thought of the idea and is in charge of the program. The program is called “What Can I Do to Get You to Vote?”
“I hope to spark some enthusiasm for voting,” Kahn said. “If we can get people to do this, they’ll realize voting is simpler than they thought.”
The students involved will place posters around campus in the next few days on which students can sign up to participate by writing their name, contact information and the favor they would like performed, Kahn said. After the posters have been up for about a week, the group will collect them and evaluate which of the favors they will be able perform. They will then get in contact with students requesting those favors and have them sign a contract agreeing to vote, he said.
Kahn said he and the other six to 12 volunteers who will be carrying out the favors are willing to consider a wide variety of possible favors, such as mowing lawns and babysitting. However, there might be some requests that they would decide against, he said.
“If someone wants us to drive to Idaho and buy them some beer, we’re probably not going to do that,” he said.
Kahn said he is doing this program because of the low percentage of people who usually vote in Cache Valley.
“It’s sad that it’s reached this far, but some sort of democracy is better than no democracy,” Kahn said. “There’s no partisan agenda for this. Vote Republican, vote Democrat, it doesn’t matter. Just vote.” -dfelix@cc.usu.edu