Rocking the vote at UNL

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By DON WALTON / Lincoln Journal Star

It’s a whole different ballgame this election year.

Soon, 24,000 University of Nebraska-Lincoln students will receive an e-mail instructing them how to register and vote.

And next month, for the first time, those who live on campus will be able to cast votes at UNL’s own precinct in the city campus student union.

View Slideshow

Jane Kleeb, wife of Nebraska senatorial candidate Scott Kleeb, visited the UNL campus Tuesday, spoke to classes and met one-on-one with students to encourage them to register to vote. A contributor to MTV and Fox News, Kleeb is also executive director for Young voter PAC. (William Lauer)

“Tune in. Turn on. Vote Now,” a splashy Page One headline in the Daily Nebraskan shouted this week.

The accompanying story in the student paper described a Campus Night Life event designed to energize this year’s student vote. Five hundred students walked away with Rock the Vote T-shirts that soon will dot the campus.

On Tuesday, Jane Kleeb was in the student union for a series of meetings after addressing law students on East Campus about the importance of the youth vote.

Kleeb is executive director of Young Voter PAC, a national organization designed to mobilize young voters to register and support “progressive” candidates.

It’s a Democratic organization.

And one of those candidates is her husband, Senate nominee Scott Kleeb.

But this year’s intense bid for the youth vote is not just Democratic — and not just campus-oriented.

Republicans are right in the middle of this hunt.

And Kleeb’s organization, as well as a whole bunch of others, are targeting voters under 35, not just college-age youth.

However, there’s no doubt the spotlight rests squarely on campuses this year. Ever since Barack Obama mobilized young voters in the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses last February, attention has focused on college students like a laser beam.

The effort to engage students at UNL has been pushed into overdrive this year.

The e-mail will come from fellow student Adam Morfeld, acting in his capacity as chairman of a new college advisory committee in the Nebraska secretary of state’s office established last spring.

Students will be told UNL will have its own designated precinct next month. The highly visible campus voting location at the Student Union is new.

Morfeld’s e-mail will include links to voter registration cards and early ballot requests. Students will be informed they can register using their residence hall or Greek house addresses.

Early voting began in Nebraska this week.

The key that unlocks young voter participation is registration, Jane Kleeb said in an interview at the union.

“The biggest myth is they don’t vote,” she said. “If they register, they vote.”

Eighty-one percent of registered college-age (18-24) voters went to the polls in 2004, Kleeb said.

“The challenge is half of them are not registered or are registered in the wrong place.”

In Nebraska, more young voters register Republican than Democratic.

But numbers are “trending more Democratic or independent than previous generations,” Kleeb said, although they are “still less Democratic than the national average of young people.”

The registration figures as of last spring for ages 17-24 (those who turn 18 by Nov. 4 will be eligible to vote): Republicans, 44 percent; Democrats, 28 percent; independents, 27 percent.

Surveys indicate young voters center more on candidates and issues than on parties, Kleeb said.

Two years ago, 70 percent of them voted for both Republican Gov. Dave Heineman and Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson, she said.

“Young people know their generational power, their power to transform politics,” Kleeb said.

“If you live in a red state, you can definitely turn it blue.

“This group can swing elections,” she said.

And what does she hear from young people during her appearances on campuses?

Not so much about the war in Iraq anymore.

The economy and jobs, Kleeb said. New energy sources. Health care insurance.

“And our standing in the world. Many students have traveled abroad. They have a world view.”

Kleeb already is a familiar face to some students because of her regular appearances on Fox News as a political panelist and her weekly “Street Team Reporter” segments from Nebraska on MTV.

“College kids are tuned in,” she said.

“They’re asking about the financial bailout. They want to know whose fault it is. They’re watching.

“We think there’ll be a record-breaking turnout on campuses this year.”

Reach Don Walton at 473-7248 or at dwalton@journalstar.com.