After a disappointing turnout last year for college students, the Long Beach City clerk’s office was doing everything possible to get students registered to vote on National voter registration day.
“Last year was not a big turn out,” said Long Beach City Clerk Specialist Lynsey Lascano.
“I think it was just like 90 people, so we’re trying to bump that number up.”
This time, the Long Beach City Clerk’s Office was handing out incentives to everyone who registered to vote, such as: phone wallets, buttons, pencils, pens, lanyards, and stickers.
In 2018 the Long Beach City Clerk’s Office was heavily focused on pre-registering high school students, but fell quite short on registered college students.
“We were able to pre-register 600, so the goal this year is over 750,” Lascano said. “90 of that 600 was from Long Beach City College, but the rest were from the high schools.”
“We’re part of the President’s Ambassadors, we’re here just kind of helping out,” said Edgar Garibay, a Long Beach City College student and member of the President’s Ambassadors.
President’s Ambassadors is one of three leadership development programs at LBCC offered through President’s Partners For Promise.
“We’re kind of like direct liaisons to President Romali,” said Garibay. “Our goal is to be active on campus, like at events on campus, be present helping out in as many ways as we can.”
“I’m a little more liberal,” said Lewis Andres, a Long Beach City College student that had just registered to vote. “My liberal parts are from just getting to know what people have gone through and what’s fair and equal to each other.”
Two voter registration booths were set up at the LBCC Liberal Arts Campus from 9 am to 4 pm.
The city was eager to collaborate with students that found themselves on the political spectrum and had a handful of assistants at their booths.