Non-partisan group aims to get students to the polls this November

University Park, Pa. -- Mixed in with the typical back-to-school fliers, students at University Park this fall will find something new: information on how, when and where to vote.

The voter-registration materials are part of a non-partisan campaign developed by P.S. U Vote, a group of mostly undergraduates, faculty members and staff. The organization is aiming to reverse the decades-long decline in the number of students who go to the ballot box with a slate of initiatives including "What's At Stake?" forums, registration drives and a Web site with a mock vote.

Research has shown that people who don't register to vote as 18- to 24-year-olds likely won't ever vote, said Laura Brown, senior undergraduate studies adviser in the Division of Undergraduate Studies and a member of P.S. U Vote's steering committee.

"We want students to get into the habit of voting, so it becomes part of their lives," Brown said.

The group has a simple, three-fold mission: to register students; educate them on the candidates and the issues; and get them to vote, said Benjamin Holsinger, a senior majoring in communication arts and sciences and chairperson of P.S. U Vote.

Key in that effort is the P.S. U Vote Web site developed by an unlikely source: high school students too young to go to the polls.

The students from the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Information Technology put the finishing touches on the site this week after five weeks designing it for their community service project. As well as creating links, the teens tested the usability of the site with undergraduate students as guinea pigs. For pictures from the usability testing session, go to http://live.psu.edu/still_life/2004_07_27_psuvote/index.html

While the testers easily navigated the site and found it nonpartisan, the Governor's School students learned the poll/mock vote feature needed improvements, some discussion-forum elements were confusing and information about local candidates was needed.

Making sure P.S. U Vote was non-partisan was as big a challenge as designing the site, said Aesha Mehta, a rising senior at Moravian Academy in Bethlehem, Pa.

"We wanted to be sure we had the same number of links for each candidate, but we also had to be sure that the links weren't biased," Mehta said. "A lot of sites are partisan, so we had to make standards to determine what was non-partisan."

That issue likely will arise more often should voting go electronic, predicted Jack Carroll, the Edward M. Frymoyer chair in information sciences and technology in the School of Information Sciences and Technology, also involved in P.S. U Vote. Internet voting raises obvious questions about security, accountability and "auditability" with electronic paper trails.

But it also will require re-examination of the rationales regarding proximity of campaign materials to polling places, posting of results and voting forms, Carroll said.

An even bigger question for Carroll is whether information technology can influence declining voter rates.

P.S. U Vote's Web site may provide insight into that this fall. Brown, like others in the project, hopes the combination of a non-partisan site, discussion boards and mock vote will turn on Penn State students.

"Young people who vote say the greatest influence for their doing so was a trusted adult," Brown said. "If our University community sends a strong message encouraging students to vote, we can help make students aware they have a voice."

P.S. U Vote is supported by a grant from the Youth Venture program of MTV. In addition to the University community, State College Mayor Bill Welch and the Centre County League of Women Voters have served on P.S. U Vote's steering committee.