Voter sign-up effort focuses on older students

St. Mary Parish eligible high school students will have an opportunity to register to vote this week. Employees from the St. Mary Registrar of Voters office plan to register interested 17- and 18- year-olds at local high schools.

Registrars across the state are hosting Voter Registration Week activities May 9-13 aimed at registering eligible citizens to vote.

“This is really a bad time for all the schools,” St. Mary Registrar of Voters Jolene Holcombe said. “… Our problem is we don’t pick the date for Voter Registration Week. That is set in Louisiana statutes. So, we don’t have a choice.”

Registrar employees are working with schools’ schedules to make voter registration among young people a success.

For example, Franklin High seniors have graduation practice today in the auditorium. But before practice begins, the school is allowing interested students to register to vote first before starting practice.

“But all of the high schools say, ‘We want you to come during the lunch break and kids can go register if they want,’” Holcombe said. “We might get 10 or 15, if we do that. Whereas at Franklin High, we get them all together, we’ll register 100 kids.

“It just depends on the school and what they allow us to do.”

Last year, 188 students registered during the fall 2015 voter registration week, according to Holcombe. This number includes both private and public high schools.

Franklin High had the most students to register with 100, followed by Hanson with 34 students. Morgan City had the third-largest group of students to register at 31.

The smallest number of students registering to vote were at Patterson High with three students, and Berwick High only had two students that registered to vote.

There are numerous ways residents can register to vote. Registration is available in person at the registrar’s office in Morgan City or Franklin and at any Office of Motor Vehicles location while applying or renewing a driver’s license.

In addition, public assistance agencies and armed forces recruitment offices are optional locations for registering to vote.

Citizens with a valid driver’s license can register to vote online 24 hours a day, seven days a week by visiting the secretary of state’s website. Louisiana was one of the first states to implement the online voter registration portal.

If none of those options work, citizens can register by mail. Applications can be found on the secretary of state’s website, in public libraries, and at registration drives.

Applications and voter education materials will be distributed to Morgan City, Patterson, and Franklin senior centers for those 65 and older.

To register and vote in Louisiana individuals must be:

—A U.S. citizen.

—At least 17 years old to register and 18 years old before the next election to vote.

—Not under an order of imprisonment for conviction of a felony.

—Not under a judgment of full interdiction for mental incompetence or partial interdiction with suspension of voting rights.

—A resident in the state and parish in which you seek to register and vote.

The 2016 presidential election will be Nov. 8. The last day to register to vote is Oct. 11. Early voting for the election is Oct. 25-Nov. 1 from 8:30 a.m. until 6 p.m. at both registrar of voters offices.