Voter registration drives sponsored by the Student Association held this week across the Mississippi State University campus were a huge success attracting a large number of students, many of whom are first time voters. 
     A final count is still pending, but an estimate from the SA puts the number of voters registered between 1,500 to 1,800.
   Kathleen Kiernan, the co-director of the SA’s Cabinet on Community and Governmental Relations, said the results of the voter registration were better than anyone could have planned. She said things went so well on the very first day that the initial print of 1,000 forms proved too low, and they had to have more forms printed.
 “What my co-director [Betty Thomas] and I really want to express is gratitude towards all the organizations and their members that assisted us,” Kiernan said. “We really could not have done this on our own.”
  Organizations that helped with the event include: Stennis Montgomery Association, Foundation Ambassadors, Involvement Ambassadors, Pre-Law Society, College Democrats, College Republicans, National Society of Collegiate Scholars, Lambda Sigma Honors Society, Shackhouls Honors Council, Involvement Ambassadors, Black Student Association, Student Association Senate and Cabinet.
  Kiernan said the event shows how the students of MSU can come together and make their voices heard to legislators across the state.
  “I think it sheds a good light on Mississippi State,” Kiernan said. “It shows that we are here to take the initiative to express our voice. Your voice equals your vote.”
  Students like Bethany Carter, a junior in kinesiology, said this will be the first time she has ever voted in any election. 
“I registered to vote because it’s the right thing,” Carter said.
     Carter said encouragement from her friends to go out and get registered to vote, as well as seeing the event on campus, made her realize what she thinks does matter. 
  “I have a voice, and I should voice my opinion on this matter,” Carter said.
   Connie Taylor, a freshman in elementary education, said registering to vote on the Drill Field was not her first time registering to vote.
“I registered to vote in Mississippi, so that while I’m not in Georgia, I can still vote in the election,” Taylor said.
 Michael Culberson, a sophomore in mechanical engineering, said he chose to register to vote because it eliminates the need for him to get an absentee ballot or drive home two and a half hours to cast his vote.
 “Filling out an absentee ballot is very complicated,” Culberson said.
  Rebecca Hall, a junior communication major, said she was not sure whether she was registered to vote or not. She said the election is important to her, and she wants to have her say in who is elected.
   “I wanted an input on my future,” Hall said.
   Bailey Thornton, a junior in communication and volunteer for the event, said the majority of people she encountered registering to vote were either freshmen or new voters, while other students were from out-of-town or out-of-state and wanted to know how they can get their absentee ballots before the election.
 
  Thornton said many voters were unsure about how to register to vote. She was glad tables were setup on the Drill Field to address questions students have about voting.
 “They wouldn’t have known how to register to vote otherwise,” Thornton said.
   McKenzie Amis, a junior business major and a volunteer for the event, said she worked both days of the voter registration drive. She said although she lives in-state, she decided to change her voting address to Starkville to make it easier on voting day.
   “It’s a good way to educate too,” Amis said. “A lot of people did not realize what they would have to do or the process to vote absentee.”
    One big problem Kiernan sees among Millennials is how they can say things and then post them on social media, but never go out and do something about them. Social media is great, Kiernan said, but it can go only do so much. She said real change happens when students get out and go to the voting booth.
  “If you want to make Mississippi a better place then that starts with being registered [to vote] and being informed,” Kiernan said.
  Kennedy Moehrs, the co-director for the SA’s Cabinet Diversity and Outreach as well as the president of the College Democrats and Stennis Montgomery Association, said words do not do justice to how she feels. 
   “I literally cannot tell you how excited I am that this many people registered to vote,” Moehrs said. “It has brightened my whole week that people are this involved in the democratic process, and that they were super excited to get involved, too.” 
  Moehrs said the results thrilled her so much that she had to call her mother and tell her what she had helped in doing.
  Students who missed the voter registrations drives on campus can still register to vote by going to the circuit clerk’s office, or they can visit the SA’s office located on the third floor of the Colvard Student Union. Kiernan said at the SA’s office there will be some forms leftover from the voter registration drives. However, she reminds students wishing to vote they must do so by Oct. 8.