Friday concert planned to drum up more voters

Oregon State University students have been filling out voter registration cards in large numbers recently. The Associated Students of OSU wants to see that trend catch on. They hope to sign up even more young voters during a concert Friday.

From 6 to 11 p.m. at McAlexander Fieldhouse, the student government group will host "Break Down, Rise Up," featuring rock band Eve 6. Opening bands for the event will be Cloud 9, Blue Ember and Break As We Fall.

OSU President Ed Ray and football coach Mike Riley also plan to attend and give brief speeches.

Candidates and their campaigns from the local and state level also have been invited to the free event, so they can educate voters about the issues.

"We hope to register 1,500 of the expected 5,000 attendees," said Ryan Mann, president of ASOSU.

Jill Van Buren, Benton County elections supervisor, said about 3,000 registration cards have been turned in during the last two weeks, with most coming from OSU.

"It's just amazing. We've always had voter registration drives at Oregon State, but we've never had this kind of response," she said. "We're processing hundreds of cards a day just from Oregon State. … A lot of them, this is the first time they'll vote - and they get to vote for the president."

Election offices statewide and countywide would typically get an increase during presidential elections, but Van Buren said the local response was unprecedented.

ASOSU and political campaigns have collected the registration cards.

"We always think we could get even more, and there are more students out there," Mann said. ASOSU hopes to visit 500 classes to get students registered by the deadline of Oct. 14. "It's not that we want anyone to vote a certain way. … We just want students to be empowered."

As of last Friday, Benton County has 48,349 registered voters, up more than 1,000 since the same time period in 2004.

Van Buren said the only strong difference she's noticed this year is the heavy voter registration effort at OSU.

The latest registration figures show 23,124 Democrats and 14,183 Republicans in Benton County. In late September 2004, Benton County had 19,050 registered Democrats and 15,744 Republicans.

Van Buren urged students to be careful to fill out their registration forms completely and include a mailing address.