The Government of the Student Body will vote on whether to fund and support a student voter registration and turnout campaign in Story County.

GSB will vote on a bill to allocate an estimated $3,000 from the senate discretionary account to fund an absentee ballot campaign on campus. The resolution, if passed, would also create a special senate committee to conduct the campaign.

Andrew Miller, off-campus senator and author of the bill, said students are a huge untapped resource that could force significant concessions from the university, city of Ames and from both major political parties in Iowa.

“Students have problems, and though they come from very different sources, the difficulties facing students in tuition, restrictive occupancy and tailgating all boil down to one thing — students have very little power,” Miller said.

“Students don’t have a lot of advantages when it comes to politics. We don’t have enough money to donate large sums to the campaigns of those in power. We don’t have the time to organize huge grassroots events to change the political face of Iowa. But we do have the better part of a hundred thousand people across the three regent universities, almost all of whom are eligible to vote in Iowa.” Miller said his goal is to see every student in Story County vote, but said he believes GSB’s campaign could potentially cause every student registered in Story County to vote.

He said if the resolution passes, he would work on setting up absentee ballot satellite stations on campus at various times and places.

He said he would also work on a Web site where students would be able to fill and print out absentee ballots and voter registration forms. Miller said campaign volunteers would be used to pick up students from their residences and take them to vote.

Getting students to care about the outcome of elections and making voting convenient are important factors in getting students to vote, he said.

Miller said students need to understand the tangible benefits and results from their voting. He said he plans to make students aware of that through the use of local media to inform students of issues.

Frederiksen Court Senator David Leege said he is reluctant to support Miller’s proposed campaign because of the amount of money Miller is asking from the senate discretionary account to fund the campaign.

“As the bill stands right now, it takes a significant amount of money from the senate discretionary account that can be used for all sorts of other groups,” Leege said. “I’ve been on GSB for five semesters and I’ve noticed that as we approach the end of the semester and the end of the year, we get more requests for money out of the senate discretionary account. We need to make sure we don’t spend it all up front, and that we will be able to fund groups as the semester progresses.”

GSB Finance Director David Boike said there is currently $9,000 in the senate discretionary account.

Miller’s bill would take $4,900 from the account, leaving it with only $4,100. However, Miller said that figure should be greatly reduced once he has accurately figured out how much money ballots, registration forms and postage will cost.