Getting Registered: Democratic Society of SU pushes for political activism

With the Governors Election and the Presidential Election quickly approaching, this is a critical time for students to acquire their voting rights. One student ran organization is pushing for political activism from the student body. The Democratic Society of Southern University held its first voter registration event on September 16. Equipped with pens and single sheets of voter registration papers, the purpose of the event was to help students get registered to vote in the state of Louisiana for both the current and future election seasons.
A fairly new organization with around 40 official members, the Democratic Society of Southern University, (DEMS) mission is to “promote the activist spirit on the HBCU campus and to engage students both socially and politically on their influence and responsibility with regards to the democratic process.” Organization president, 23-year-old SU graduate student and teaching assistant, Angelle Bradford, as well as other members stated that their innate passion for helping students is what helped them prepare to get students registered and politically active. Angelle herself worked under Obamas’ campaign during her junior year in college; with the addition of working in Mary Landrieu’s campaign she knew the do’s and do not’s of an awareness campaign such as this one. Janae Fontenot, 18-year-old Biology major from New Orleans, stated, “I never knew registering to vote was so easy. I would have done it sooner.”
The scheduled appearance of State Representative, District 72, John Bel Edwards, State Representative of District 29, Regina Ashford Barrow, and State Representative, District 63 Joyce Marie Plummer, in Higgins Hall the day before the last voting event was a key factor in getting students excited about voting. Angelle stated, “Their energy is so unapologetic…they aren’t intimidated by people with different political views so they know how to appeal to diverse crowds.” When asked if the district representatives coming to Southern played a factor in her registration 20 year old Social Work Major, Kayla Cornelious said, “I’m usually not into politics, but I went to their meeting and found what they had to say interesting. I’m already registered to vote, and this only makes me want to exercise those voting rights.”
Over the course of two weeks over two hundred students were registered to vote. With projected student registration being around 500, these numbers were on the low to mid end, three hundred registries short, but Angelle stated that it is hard to get people involved. “It is hard to get students involved and find out they don’t care, and if they do then why they don’t show it. The student body isn’t engaged, and administration could help make social, political, and environmental activism “campus culture”. “The hope is to implement this type of event into the freshmen orientation process.” Many students passed by the booth, but only a few would stay receive a single voter registration paper. In terms of the future, DEMS has high hopes. The plan is to start engaging students earlier in the election year and schedule around the goal.