Rhode Island Secretary of State Mollis Pushes Generation Y Voter Registration

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PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Nov. 6, 2007) -- Rhode Island Secretary of State A. Ralph Mollis will spend today promoting voter registration. The goal is to improve turnout among 18-to-24-year-olds leading up to the 2008 elections.

At 9 a.m., Mollis will be at Pawtucket's Shea High School to cast the first vote in a mock election that more than 3,600 Pawtucket high school and middle school students are expected to take part in.

Using official voting machines, the students will decide ballot questions ranging from whether there should be universal health insurance to whether every student should have his own text book for every class.

At 6 p.m., Mollis will be at Providence College to join the leaders of collegiate Republican and Democratic student organizations to kick-off a year-long voter registration drive that targets freshmen and sophomores at the state's nine colleges.

The initiative, which will target freshmen and sophomores at the state’s nine colleges, will launch with talks by Mollis, state GOP Chairman Gio Cicione and Democratic Party Chairman Bill Lynch.

PC’s Republican and Democratic student organizations will host the event to launch their own campus-wide voter education initiative. That effort is co-hosted by PC’s American Studies department and Democracy in Action.

Mollis' visits to Pawtucket and PC's Feinstein Academic Center go hand-in-hand with his push to get younger voters to the polls in 2008. The Secretary of State plans to visit every Rhode Island high school and college leading up to the 2008 elections.

In order to register to vote in the Ocean State, students must be age 18 on or before Election Day 2008, be residents of Rhode Island and have a valid Rhode Island driver’s license or social security number.

Source: Rhode Island Secretary of State