School sessions help boost registrations

TRUMBULL — When he turned 18 last year, Kevin Collins knew exactly how to make sure his newly adult voice was heard.

He signed up to vote.

"I mailed it in," the Milford resident said.

But many of his classmates at St. Joseph High School here haven't been quite sure what to do. So Collins spearheaded a voter registration session at the school, which took place Tuesday.

"A lot of kids want to get involved, but they don't know how," Collins said.

"I just didn't know where to go," said Katie Derosiers, of Stratford, who also turned 18 last year.

There was no question about what to do on Tuesday. School announcements invited students to report to the library where Trumbull assistant registrars Kathleen Miranti and Sandra

Mangiacapra were happy to direct them through paperwork — regardless of what town the students came from.

"We're doing really well here," said Miranti, with her total of new registrants approaching 100 in a senior class of about 150. And since some members of the senior class won't be 18 by the Nov. 4 election, were already registered or were absent, they were extremely impressed.

A hot presidential race is sparking thousands of new registrations across the state, particularly among young people, according to Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz.

In the three months since the state's presidential primary, roughly 12,000 new voters under 30 have signed up, nearly as many as the 13,000 voters of all ages who registered in the

same period last year.

Those as young as 17 may register if they will be 18 by primary or Election Day.

Voting officials were swamped with new registrations before this year's presidential primary. In the three months before, 40,000 new voters registered in the state.

And the 34,000 voters overall who have registered from Feb. 5 to May 5 isn't that far off the number who registered in the three months before.

"That surge is continuing," said Adam Joseph, a Bysiewicz spokesman.

In Fairfield, where voting officials have visited Notre Dame, Fairfield College Preparatory School and Fairfield Ludlowe High School in recent weeks, Republican Registrar Roger Autuori said the new crop of voters is responding.

"I think the interest is high," he said. "They seem to know who's running and what each stands for."

In Stratford, registrars plan to visit Stratford and Bunnell high schools when seniors have their graduation practice, and Republican Registrar Lou DiCilio said interest should be no problem in this presidential year.

But even in a municipal year, "we usually come out of the high schools with 200 or 300 new voters," he said.

Bridgeport Democratic Registrar Santa Ayala said she has not visited high schools to register voters in recent weeks. But "we've increased our focus on the young," she said, adding that new rules permitting poll workers as young as 16 may contribute to their interest.

Bridgeport registered 1,038 new voters under 30 in the three after-primary months, more than 50 percent of its 2,093 new voters.

The Trumbull registrars said the enthusiasm at St. Joseph was a far cry from their experience at Trumbull High School several weeks ago, which has been an annual stop. Then, in nearly six hours, fewer than 100 new voters signed up out of 500 members in the class.

Why the disparity? Bysiewicz said students at THS may have felt detached because there was no assembly to link the upcoming election to issues affecting their lives.

She said she likes to address students, talking to them about issues such as a potential draft, whether they support the war in Iraq, the environment, and even financial choices.

Otherwise, "you don't get kids as engaged," she said.

Although there was no assembly at St. Joseph either, perhaps the students there have been encouraged to sign up by knowing members of their class going into the military and by their current affairs class.

"I think there's a renewed sense of patriotism," said senior adviser Maureen Anderson.

But students said they just see historic options this year.

"It's kind of like exciting to vote for the first time," said Adam Turner, of Shelton, who registered as a Republican, and turns 18 in June.

"It's like a really big thing," said Seymour resident Kyle Heroic of the upcoming election. "It's everywhere."

"I want to be part of the black vote," announced VanDaysha Taylor, of Bridgeport, hastening to add she liked Sen. Barack Obama not because he's black, but because "he seems like he's really trustworthy." Miranti said not everyone went away happy, though.

"The ones that were born in December — they were really upset," she said.