UMass senior and Republican Club president Greg Collins sits at an informational table in the Campus Center marked by a McCain/Palin poster, handing out bumper stickers and talking to undecided students.
“A decent number of students stopped by our table and asked us about getting McCain paraphernalia and such for themselves. They seem genuinely interested,” he said.
Across campus, from dining halls to classrooms, members of the UMass Democrat Club have been actively promoting voter registration.
“We’ve been doing so much voter registration. [We've had] an event almost every day until the deadline,” said Emma Einhorn, a senior and member of the club.
With the presidential election less than one week away, it’s become crunch time for the two campaigns making their final push for victory. At UMass, both Democrat and Republican groups have spent the last month spreading the word of their representative by targeting the more ambivalent students whose vote could help get their candidate in office.
Not only has the Republican Club tried reaching the student body here on campus, but Collins said they also moved off campus to various venues in order to help Sen. John McCain’s campaign, setting up phone banks in Springfield and canvassing door-to-door in New Hampshire.
Einhorn says the UMass Democrats also spent a fair share of their time doing off campus work.
“We go up to New Hampshire every single weekend to campaign for Obama,” she said. “We have a phone bank set up in Sunderland that works six days a week to make phone calls for Obama.”
Reflecting on the effect of current events on student interest in the election, Einhorn said that the economic crisis hasn’t created any more political followers on campus because students don’t yet fully feel the effects. Students are not generally involved in the stock market and pay very little in taxes, so the issue doesn’t affect politics on campus as much as it would elsewhere, she said.
Collins suggested that other factors have helped spark interest among students.
“I would say the presence of Obama in general has excited some students more than any one particular election issue,” he said. “Also, I hate to say it, but Saturday Night Live skits and Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert has also contributed heavily to the increased involvement with politics among students at this time – for better or for worse.”
Regardless of the reasons, both clubs’ representatives agree that student interest is growing. “There has definitely been an increase in political awareness this semester compared to my previous five semesters on campus,” said Collins.
“There has been tons of excitement,” said Einhorn. “Students see our table and start shouts and chants for their preferred candidate. Students are ready for this election, one that it will be the most important election of our lifetime and for many people including myself, it will be their first presidential election.”
