On October 2, the Office of Student Legislative Affairs (OSLA) at Bellevue College (BC) is conducting a voting registration drive to encourage college students to vote for the regional and presidential election. The Bulldog Vote, which is the name of their event, is taking place from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The drive will involve the Washington Bus which is a non profit organization dedicated to bringing young people to politics to claim control of their responsibility as young Washingtonians to support reformist and liberal candidates within the state and nation.
Thuy Ngoc Pham, more commonly known by the name “Tweedy,” is an international student and the Organizing Director of OSLA. Pham has been working with her partner OSLA Legislative Director Kristin Velez, and volunteers to prepare for the campaign over the summer.
Pham is very excited to get Bellevue College student to register to vote because the school is competing with other schools in the state to reach their target of 1000 registered students. “We are competing with UW, WSU, EWU and other colleges to see which campus will reach their goal first,” said Pham. Also Pham is an international student and has a passion about getting people to vote. She wants to see the diverse participation from the student body.
The event is targeted to attract approximately 500 students. Snacks and music will be the main attractions at the event. Regarding the preparation, Pham said that the OSLA already have everything under control. Phan added, “We have been working on this campaign throughout summer and I hope that we’ll reach the goal that we set.”
The Washington Bus will attend the registration drive and be stationed at the wide walkway between the C and B buildings. Volunteers from the Washington Bus will help OSLA and their volunteers tabling.
The process of registering to vote is relatively quick and could take less than a minute according to Pham. The OSLA and their volunteers are working hard to reach their target because the registration deadline for new voters is on October 8.
Sophia Trinh is a Washington Bus intern and is a participant in the Bellevue College OSLA Bulldog Vote event. Trinh’s hope is to raise awareness of the importance of voting because it is a very good opportunity for students to choose the candidate that will fight for improvement in education. “Unlike in many other countries, students can vote and have a direct link to their democracy which is very important,” said Trinh.
Trinh believes that if people want ‘change,’ the way to do it is to show active support of new legislations or policies. The first step to accomplishing this goal is to register voters. From there, students can decide on candidates they want to be represented by and which bills they want to support.
OSLA is a student-run student led non-profit organization. In order to make a successful campaign, they need students to volunteer. To volunteer for OSLA, students can contact Pham at OSLAorgdir@bellevuecollege.edu or go to L100 where OSLA is currently located.