Columnist Sidney Salter and political cartoonist Marshall Ramsey began a week-long student voter registration drive at Mississippi State University. The journalists were guest speakers for Impact Mississippi, a student organization led by the MSU Student Association. “In America, in Mississippi, in Oktibbeha County and in Starkville, the government is chosen by a majority of the minority,” Salter, an MSU alumnus and perspective editor of The Clarion-Ledger, said. He used the first four rows of the Colvard Union Small Auditorium as an example of the common percentage of eligible voters who are registered.
Salter also considered voting a habit that needed early development. “The way I see it, voting is learned behavior,” Salter said.
“It is very important to get out there,” Ramsey, a four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, said. He called voting for our government and laws “our No. 1 job as citizens.”
Students will have chances to register at five MSU campus locations 9 a.m.-2 p.m. today through Thursday.
“I think this is a great opportunity to begin the process of getting involved and having our voices heard,” Jane Anna Harris, SA director of governmental affairs, said, “not only in our campus communities, but also statewide.”
Harris is an MSU sophomore majoring in political science. She said this drive is taking place at all the public and private four-year universities in the state to include all unregistered voters.
“Our goal is to register 2,500 voters in Mississippi,” Harris said.
Tonight, Mississippi Representatives Robert Clark, Gary Chism, Tyrone Ellis and Phillip West, as well as Student Affairs Vice President Roy Ruby and MSU student and Starkville Alderman Lee Beck, will speak at 6 p.m. in the Colvard Student Union Lobby.
Wednesday, Scott Ross, current member of the Board of the Institutes of Higher Learning will speak in the John Grisham Room at 2 p.m.
The Starkville Board of Alderman and Mayor Mack Rutledge will gather for a question-and-answer session in Simrall Auditorium at 7 p.m.