The Berkeley Beacon

Issue date: 9/25/08 Section: Lifestyle

Media Credit: Pat Rosso Pat Rosso/Beacon correspondent

Students hailing from outside the greater Boston area now have alternatives to shuffling through the paperwork of getting an out-of-state ballot. Two Emerson students have made it easier to vote absentee with the created Web sites govoteabsentee.com, designed by film major Brian Moore, and beabsentee.org, the creation of communication studies major Aaron Bacon.

Both sites were started by groups of students who wanted to provide information about voting with an absentee ballot. Voting absentee allows people to have their ballot mailed to them and does not require that they re-register in the state that they are residing. The site gives step-by-step instructions on how to file a vote far from home and all the rules and laws involved.

“We started coming up with the idea in April,” said Bacon, a junior. “We wanted to do something that would turn out the youth vote and really wanted to push absentee voting.”

Now that the sites are available for students, manager and co-creator of govoteabsentee.com Sam Oliker-Friedland said they want to encourage students to take advantage of the accessibility of the new absentee alternatives. Oliker-Friedland, a senior at Brown University, said the idea behind the project was to make sure people have the resources they need to vote.

“We can’t call it democracy until everyone who wants to vote, can,” he said.

The creators of govoteabsentee.com introduced a widget application that allows schools, students and whoever else is interested to link to the site from their homepage, Facebook or MySpace. The enterprise was the political brainchild of Oliker-Friedland, who approached Moore and asked why there wasn’t a Web site that helped people vote absentee.

“It’s ridiculous someone hasn’t done this before,” said Oliker-Friedland. “No one ever says voting isn’t important to them. They always say it was too hard to get the process done.”

Because the Web sites are so convenient, more students can get to the information. Bacon said beabsentee.org receives about a 100 unique hits a day, but the number has spiked as high as 250 after a recent press release.

“I think mostly the idea is that if you are in college, waiting till the last minute to vote is not the best way to do it,” said Bacon. “Go get an absentee ballot.”

Moore was the prefect cohort for the project—he started creating Web sites when he was in seventh grade. He makes all his sites without using any additional programs.

“It was just a hobby,” he said. “I always liked Web sites. It’s just a dorky thing.”

The first prominent Emerson-related site he created was the1880.com. The site serves as an information hub for both on and off-campus students. It provides blog-like news about upcoming events as well as opinion pieces on different books and art, and offers a section for students to share their thoughts.

Moore, a junior transfer from the University of Puget Sound, said he found it difficult to completely integrate into his class, which spawned the idea to create the1880.com, named for the year Emerson was founded.

“Before I transferred, I got really deep into the school and when I came to Emerson I wanted to do the same,” Moore said. “I tried but it was more difficult.”

As an out-of state-voter, Moore found difficulties when he first wanted to vote and drew from his own problematic experience when creating govoteabsentee.com.

“It looks good is easy to use. That’s the idea,” he said.
Sherry Larkin, a sophomore who transfered to Emerson from Texas, said this year would be easier than the rest.

“It will be handy for me to go absentee this year,” the writing, literature and publishing major said. “It’s good to be able to cast a vote if you have just changed locations without re-registering.”

That is not to say that this is the first Web site to focus on this idea, but as Moore put it, the ones that do exist don’t give enough information and seem to try too hard to be interesting for the voters.

“Step by step,” said Moore. “All the little rules, we walk you through it.” Moore remembers giving up after searching for a way to vote absentee when his first election came around and doesn’t want that to happen to anyone else.

Although Moore said he is probably going to vote for democratic candidate Barack Obama, the site is totally non-partisan.

“We aren’t supporting one side or the other,” said Moore. “It’s about getting people to vote, whichever side they choose, that’s fine.”

Moore and Bacon both hope the voter turnout will be higher, and that students won’t wait too long before logging on.

“It seems young people are more excited to vote,” Moore said. “I have faith in this country to be in a good position for the future of its citizens.”


Kelly Smith and Ariel White, Beacon staff, contributed to this report.

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