Voter registration kiosks coming to local universities

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WSFA) - It’s a race where the only running involved is too the polls. But before lining up, voters must register. And that’s exactly the purpose of the new voter registration kiosks unveiled by Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and Montgomery County Probate Judge JC Love.

“This project was born out of a problem we experienced during last November’s election,” said Love. “There was a large number of college students that showed up to the polls excited on Election Day...and when they went to check and discovered that they weren’t on the voter rolls.”

According to Merrill, it’s not the number of college student registering to vote that’s a problem. It’s the way they’re registering. He pointed out that many young people registered to vote through social media platforms and they weren’t actually registered.

“If you use a third-party group they may take that information and use it for another purpose independent of the purpose that was intended, which is to become a register voter or to change their registered voter information,” Merrill said.

The kiosks will be on the campuses for Auburn University at Montgomery, Faulkner University, Troy University at Montgomery, Huntingdon College, Trenholm State and Alabama State University. With one machine accessible on each campus, some of the universities are including voter registration education into their curriculums.

“The voting is really one cog in the process. That first you know what you’re doing with your protesting, you’re letting elected officials know that there’s an issue that you’re concerned about, and then secondly you’ve got to go ahead and support those candidates that support those issues,” Love said.

Merrill said he offered this program to all the probate judges in the state.

“Judge Love is just the one that took the initiative to make sure that it was offered to the people that live in Montgomery County and especially our new friends who will be coming to live in Montgomery County at the different campuses,” Merrill said.

The machines should be available for use next week.

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