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One of the best ways to get decision-makers to pay attention to students is to make sure that tons of students get to the polls and vote during elections.

With state and local elections happening in lots of places and the primaries on the horizon next year, it's never too early to start building a campus-wide coalition to register students to vote.

Building a Voter Registration Coalition lets you run a bigger voter registration drive by bringing together groups/people with all different resources. For example:

• Volunteers. Service organizations, Greek Life, or political organizations can often mobilize a ton of volunteers to get out on campus with clipboards and pens and get a ton of students registered to vote.
• Members. Groups with a big membership base can contribute a lot just by getting all their members registered.
• Access to students. For example, the faculty, the Residence Life system, or the Freshman Orientation Committee bring a lot to the coalition through their access to a lot of students.
• Access to websites and email lists. While your emphasis should be on talking to students face-to-face, websites like StudentVote.org let you fill out a voter registration form online and then print and mail it. Use your coalition to get "Register To Vote Here" links put on highly-trafficked campus websites, and get announcements sent over as many email lists as possible.

Here's how to build a Voter Registration Coalition.

The first step is to make a list of everyone you want to ask to join your coalition. Here are some particular people to think about:

• The biggest organizations on campus
• The groups that organize the biggest events
• The freshman orientation committee
• The residence hall system
• Greek organizations
• Political organizations
• Community service organizations
• Faculty who teach the biggest classes
• Faculty who teach a lot of freshmen
• The Faculty Union or Faculty Senate
• The Athletics departments
• The Dean of Students
• The College/University President

Next, contact everyone and pitch them on joining your coalition. You'll probably want to email everyone, make a follow-up call, and even meet with each of them in person to present your vision and get their ideas.

Finally, organize your first Coalition Meeting. You should get two things out of this meeting: you should build everyone's investment in the project by brainstorming ideas together, and you should set a goal for how many people you'll register together.

Then you're ready to start registering some voters! You should contact Sarah for more advice and resources from SET about how to run a great voter registration drive on your campus.