New U-ME Vote Website Offers Debate, Discussion and Registration Details
Contact: Joline Blais at (207) 581-4486
Jon Ippolito at (207) 581-4477 or George Manlove at (207) 581-3756
ORONO — With city and town clerks signing up new voters in Maine by the thousands as Election 2004 approaches, two UMaine professors are worried that not all potential first-time voters have enough information to register to vote.
Joline Blais and Jon Ippolito, assistant professors of New Media and co-directors of the UMaine Still Water program, recently created and posted a new interactive website, U-Me Vote, a “clearinghouse” for election questions, Ippolito says. The site provides voter registration information and instructions, including local polling locations, access to websites, articles and opinion columns on election issues — and a place where users can leave comments under election issue categories.
The non-partisan site, http://newmedia.umaine.edu/stillwater/ume_vote/, aims to educate, stimulate and convince young people of voting age to participate in what many people call the most important election in their lives.
“In this election,” Ippolito says, “there is so much at stake for young people. I think they need to stand up and accept the mantle of citizenship.”
Ippolito and Blais discovered from speaking with students in their classes that, while many are informed about the issues, many students have been discouraged from registering to vote for several reasons. Some had received inaccurate or incomplete information about how to register, what to bring for identification and where to take it, and others indicated they didn’t feel informed enough about issues to vote.
“I think it’s also a matter of them feeling a little bit intimidated,” Ippolito says.
Blais hopes students will be inspired to become more involved.
“It’s taking an active role rather than just consuming information from the media,” she says. “Students can be better informed. They are playing a stronger role in their education and their participation in the political process.”
Issues like the war in Iraq and the question of a new military draft, the economy and budget questions as they affect student loan availability or tuition costs, jobs after graduation or questions of reproductive rights may affect students immediately, Blais and Ippolito say, while issues of healthcare, social security, stem cell research and foreign policy loom in their futures.
“We’ve used this Internet technology to spark local discussions,” Blais says. “We’ve tried to make space available for students’ needs, both real and virtual, so we put a website up to address student concerns with election issues.”
Because it can be edited by users, the site will be a work in progress, as visitors add topics, comments, resources, opinions and URLs. Already, students have begun discovering and using the site, which Blais, Ippolito and other faculty members have been promoting.
“We’re hoping some people will feel encouraged to exercise the power that they don’t realize they have,” Blais says.
UMaine students, for their part, seem to like the U-Me Vote site.
“I haven’t really seen many non-partisan websites,” says Mia E. Dow, campaign coordinator for UMaine Republicans. “I certainly haven’t seen a website like the one Joline and Jon have put up. That is a really good database. It seems like