In the midst of a contentious election season, United States Student Association President Tiffany Loftin spoke with a student government committee Monday about the importance of student involvement in the upcoming election.
According to the U.S.S.A. website, the group’s mission is to create accessible and affordable higher education through student governments at the local, state and national level.
Loftin told the Associated Students of Madison Legislative Affairs Committee that student voter turnout in the November election is of the utmost importance following the attention student issues received after a historic level of student involvement in the last election.
“There is no other reason our issues were brought to the state and federal level [than our turnout] in 2008,” Loftin said.
Loftin said the U.S.S.A. has already registered 57,000 students to vote and is working toward its goal of registering 117,000 students total.
Loftin also commended the United Council of UW Students, a statewide group of students from universities across Wisconsin that advocates for student issues, as being “very active” in encouraging students to register to vote.
Additionally, ASM has been pursuing its own Vote Campaign to register students at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
Legislative Affairs Committee Chair Dan Statter said getting students registered to vote is a strong priority for ASM this year.
“[Voting] is fundamental, students are citizens,” Statter said. “As elected representatives it is something that is very important to our duty.”
