Though the election is not until Nov. 6, students can take steps now to secure their registration, whether they are registered at Eastern or in their hometowns.

Jarrod Scherle, student executive vice president, said the student government plans to sponsor a voter registration drive in mid-to-late September to make sure as many Eastern students are registered as possible.

“We did this last fall and we got about 250 people registered over three days,” he said. “This year, we’re doing it over 5 days and I’m shooting for 1,000 registered students in Coles County.”

Scherle said he would like to have multiple locations on campus set up for students to register, expanding from just the Library Quad to possibly the South Quad and North Quad as well, depending on the number of volunteers.

The drive will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sept. 17 to Sept. 21.

“We have an Uncle Sam costume we’re going to use to get people’s attention and there will be signs everywhere,” Scherle said.

He said the registration will take about three minutes and will get students completely ready to go for Election Day.

“We will personally take the registrations to the courthouse and in two weeks, student will get their voter registration cards in the mail,” he said.

To be eligible to vote on Nov. 6, students must register by Oct. 9, whether it is through registering on campus or having an absentee ballot sent to their school address.

“Even if you miss the drive, registration forms will be available in the Student Activities Center and also on our student government website,” Scherle said.

Scherle said the student government might go to specific registered student organizations and organizations such as Hall Council and the Residence Hall Association to register their members if the interest is present.

Student voters who are registered in their hometown can request an absentee ballot on the Illinois State Board of Elections website.

Illinois Application for Absentee Ballots will be available for download on Sept. 27.

“Since this is a presidential election, there will be a lot of excitement surrounding it,” Scherle said. “We’re going to get this publicized as much as possible.”

Robyn Dexter can be reached at 581-2812 or redexter@eiu.edu.