Florida Presidential Primary Voter Registration Deadline Nears
New voters must register with the Miami-Dade County Elections Department by Feb. 16 to participate in Florida’s upcoming Presidential Preference Primary Election on March 15.
“It can make a difference to who wins, just one vote,” said Kendall nursing major Cynthia Castro, 20, who aims to register by the deadline. “I just want to vote. And I don’t like Donald Trump so I want to vote against him.”
A report from the Supervisor of Elections states that out of 1,240,331 registered voters in Miami-Dade County, 139,041 are between the ages of 18 and 25. The county has a total population of 2.5 million residents, with 80 percent over the age of 18.
In order to register, one must fill out the Florida Voter Registration Application, available at www.miamidade.gov/elections/ in English, Spanish or Creole.
Completed applications must be sent to the Supervisor of Elections, PO Box 521550, Miami, FL 33152, within two days of having been completed. Newly registered voters will then receive a voting identification card through the mail.
Students who need assistance filling out their applications have multiple avenues for seeking out help on Campus and in the community.
The Institute for Civic Education and Democracy (iCED) has offices at all eight MDC Campuses, providing guidance in filling out registration forms. iCED will also host voter registration drives and debate watch parties for students. One of the group’s main goals is promote www.mdc.turbovote.org, which provides updates on local, state, and federal elections as well as notifies users about election related deadlines. Unregistered voters can also register on Turbovote, though the finished application must still be printed out and mailed.
“There’s no excuse, we have it set up just for MDC students. It’s free,” said iCED College-Wide Director Josh Young.
Other faculty members, such as social sciences professor Sandra Castillo at the Kendall Campus, have been helping students register to vote.
Since attending civil rights leader Diane Nash’s talk at the North Campus about the correlation between constitutional rights and voting, professor Castillo has made it her mission to help students register before the Feb. 16 deadline. She has gone door-to-door with members of the NAACP and Black Caucus to provide information on precincts, registration and the candidates. Sometime in February, Phillip Agnew, co-founder of activist group Dream Defenders, will speak at Castillo’s classes about the importance of voting. For more information, email Castillo at scastill@mdc.edu.
Not to be overlooked, the Green Party Club at Wolfson has been organizing voting information booths during college events, such as Club Rush, to help students complete their registration applications.
“We’d like to have more students register,” said club President Cathy Gilbert.
The organization is associated with the Green Party, a group devoted to social justice, the environment, and economic and political systems. However, its registration aid is nonpartisan. The student-led group, started in the fall semester, will also be posting candidate videos on their Facebook and Sharknet pages.
Additionally, the nonpartisan League of Women Voters of Miami Dade County has an online voters’ toolkit at: www.lwvmiamidade.org/.
