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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 2012)
Eye Health Focus Hands-On Experience Optometrist reaches out to help the under-served Summer jobs support careers in natural resources See Health, page 5 IrJîartÎattit 'City o/Roses’ îy ÿ Volume XXXXI Number 29 See Metro, page 11 k 4 i 31 www.portlandobserver.com www. F U l LS Wednesday wednt • August I. 2012 Established in 1970 Committed to Cultural Diversity years of •'community service Empowering the Vote Student groups on mission to impact elections B y M indy C ooper T he P ortland O bserver photo by M indy C ooper /T he P ortland O bserver Portland Community College students Trieste Desautelsare (left) and Amy Stevens at the PCC Cascade campus in north Portland. The students are part of a statewide effort to increase the number of students who are registered voters. Aimed to empower students to become more politically in volved and not sit idly by as college tuition soars and other needs go unmet, a group of non partisan student coalitions have registered nearly 20,000 new vot ers. As part of a statewide cam paign to register and educate over 40,000 students to vote, students at Portland Community College have joined forces with theircoun- terparts, the Oregon Student As sociation and the Oregon Com munity College Student Associa tion, to make a difference at the ballot box this November. “We are already halfway to meeting that goal with 19,500 students registered across the state since April,” said Sarah Westover, Oregon Student Foun dation vote organizer at PCC Cascade. “More than 1,300 of those students were from PCC Cascade alone, and we hope to register 1,200 more on this cam pus before the election.” Throughout the past year, the non-partisan coalitions have per formed campus visits and pre pared classroom presentations, which has helped secure the previously unregistered voters to prove to elected officials that students care about the political process. “O ur best chance to advocate for better funding and more ac cess is to prove to them that students are paying attention, and do vote,” W estover said. continued on page 9
