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The Daily Tar Heel

Register to vote: Even though national campaigns are over, students should still vote in municipal elections

In November’s municipal elections, Chapel Hill will be voting for a new mayor and for four seats on the Town Council. These local officials will work closely with the University, so Chapel Hill’s student population should take an active role in deciding who gets elected.

Chapel Hill is our home for four years (sometimes more), and by voting, we send a message to local leaders that we are committed to making sure their policies and actions serve the best interests of UNC students.

Last fall, our campus was inundated with information about the 2008 election. Candidates spent a great deal of time on college campuses sharing their platform ideas, and non-partisan groups harassed us from August through October about whether we were registered to vote. The efforts of these groups paid off, and a record-breaking 23 million 18- to 29-year-olds cast ballots nationwide.

Now, in 2009, the clipboard-wielding volunteers are nowhere to be found on campus. Without any high-profile national races coming up, the sense of urgency we saw last year to register students is gone.

But the absence of a presidential race does not diminish the importance of voting in an election.

Although few UNC students are town natives, anyone who has lived in Chapel Hill for 30 days by the election can vote. Registering locally ensures that your vote directly impacts your everyday life.

Project SERV (Students Engaged in Registering Voters) — a non-partisan student group — has been registering students to vote this week as part of the University’s Week of Welcome.

Students who have never registered to vote, or have registered before but moved since they last voted, are encouraged to find the Project SERV table in the Pit tomorrow and update their registrations.

Register to vote, research the candidates and cast a ballot November 3.

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