CSUEB Offers Early Opportunity to Voters
- October 24, 2006
- MEDIA CONTACT: Kim Huggett, Dir. of Public Affairs, (510) 885-2032, or Barry Zepel, Media Relations Officer, (510) 885-3884
Cal State East Bay's Hayward campus (25800 Carlos Bee Blvd.) is the first ever university in Alameda County to offer remote, early voting. No need to wait for the Nov. 7 general election to exercise your right to vote.
Anyone registered to vote in Alameda County can cast their ballot at one of the touch-screen voting units from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the University Union on Thursday (Oct. 26). The first day of the on-campus voting was Wednesday, Oct. 25.
The campus voting opportunity is part of a move to make voting more convenient, said Guy Ashley, spokesman for the Alameda County Registrar of Voters.
Election officials hope making voting more convenient also will improve voter turnout. The registrar's office is trying to step up early voting for the Nov. 7 general election. Talks on locating the polls at CSUEB began in August.
"You avoid the lines on election day, and you get it done," Ashley said. "On election day, things can come up that keep you from voting. This way students could be on their way to class, see the machine there and say 'hey, I can just vote now.' "
In the June primary, only 1,500 early votes were cast in Alameda County out of a total of 300,000. The registrar's office is trying to step up early voting for the Nov. 7 general election by taking the mobile units out to places where people work, shop and study.
"The advantage for us is the more people who vote early makes our ballot counting easier," Ashley said. "We can get more votes into the pipeline sooner and won't have so many to count on election night."
More information about registering to vote, locations of mobile units and regular polling places and sample ballots for the Nov. 7 election is available online on the Alameda County Registrar of Voters Web site at http://www.acgov.org/rov/.
