Campus political groups use technology in the push to Election Day

College Republicans and Young Democrats have logged on to new methods of effective communication while working on their election campaigns this year.

"I think that in order for a campaign to be successful in this age you really have to combine 21st century technology," said Tom Jensen, party affairs director for the Young Democrats.

Jordan Selleck, chairman of the College Republicans, echoed this sentiment.

"Technology has been the lifeline for us in effective campaigning and organizing," he said. "Cell phones, messenger and e-mail have improved communication and have therefore improved our efforts."

An e-mail sent to 2,100 students Monday by the Young Democrats informed students about early voting and encouraged them to go cast their ballots at Morehead Planetarium.

The long line of students at the polling site Tuesday afternoon showed the effectiveness of communication via e-mail, Jensen said. "Students want to vote, but getting the information they need in order to go to the polls and successfully cast their ballot requires extra information, and that's what we've been providing them with."

In addition to focusing on an early voting drive, the Young Democrats began working in late August to re-register students who had not updated their addresses.

"Members checked to see whether the students registered in dorms were still around or not and sent multiple e-mails about the need for them to re-register" Jensen said.

About 1,400 students received e-mails telling them they should re-register and about 800 to 900 re-registered, Jensen said.

For those who still didn't update their address, Young Democrats informed students living in dorms which of the six voting precincts they are assigned to and instructed off-campus students to call the Orange County Board of Elections to find out their precinct.

By encouraging early voting and re-registering, which will eliminate the need for students to fill out forms to report change of address on election day, members of Young Democrats said they have contributed to make things much less cumbersome for poll workers and voters on and before Election Day.

The Young Democrats Web site hosts a campus blog, a calendar for upcoming events and meetings, news updates and links to candidate sites, national, state and other college organization sites.

The College Republicans Web site now is being updated after changes in the group's structure.

At the moment it has resource links to Web sites of Republican candidates, to national, state and other College Republican sites and sites with commentary and analysis of party policy. The Web site should be updated and running after the elections, Selleck said.

Members of College Republicans said that the Internet also has been a great tool for them to recruit volunteers to serve on a 72-hour task force in which they go door-to-door to register and inform voters.

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.