The Student Senate is planning for a voter registration drive to be underway by the middle of this month to encourage student turnout in elections.

“That’s the plan,” said Bill Davidson, student vice president for public affairs. “We’re going to start off the voter registration drive pretty soon.”

Though last semester Davidson said he wanted to declare September “voter registration month,” he now wants to stretch out the campaign for the entire school year.

“I want to have every month be part of our voter registration campaign,” Davidson said. “It’s essential for us to be represented (through voting), especially in these tough financial times for Eastern.”

“We’re not being adequately represented within our community, and we need to have a voice in Charleston,” he said.

Last year, the Student Government set up tables throughout the campus for a limited time in order to recruit new voters. This year, however, Davidson wants to do more to increase voter awareness.

In addition to setting up voter registration tables at Coleman Hall and the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union, Davidson said he wants more personal interaction with students.

“This year we’re going to go to the students instead of the students coming to us,” Davidson said. “We’re going to go door to door and talk to on-campus and off-campus students.”

Davidson’s first task in setting up the voter registration drive is to form a committee to coordinate the voter registration efforts and to receive training for registering other students.

“I’m going to get as many people as I can to register others,” Davidson said. “I’m going to go to the RSOs and ask them to help out.”

By the November 2004 election, Davidson said his goal is to have 7,000 Eastern students registered to vote. He is pushing for 5,000 by December.

“I think we’re at about 1,100 (students),” Davidson said.

Though the primary election nominating candidates will be this March, the November 2004 election is when all the county offices and the county board will be elected.

Coles County Clerk Betty Coffrin said voter records do not indicate the number of Eastern students that voted in previous elections.

“We just don’t have the ability to do that,” Coffrin said. “So as far as us knowing if they’re a student, if they did vote or didn’t, we don’t have that information.”