With the presidential primary elections coming up in Oklahoma March 1, The Trend encourages all USAO students to get out and vote. If you aren’t already registered to vote, the deadline to register to vote in the primary election is Feb. 5. If you’re registered in your home county, you may want to consider changing your status to Grady County so you can vote here in Chickasha.

Registering to vote is surprisingly simple. It takes maybe five minutes to fill out the form, and after that it just has to be mailed in. You can obtain a registration form from many different sources.

On campus, Dr. Aleisha Karjala, professor of political science, and Blake Morgan, professor of art, are currently heading a movement to register students to vote. All you have to do is get a registration form from one of them and fill it out, and they will even mail it for you. They’ll be doing this up until Feb. 1, so there’s still plenty of time.

You can also obtain a registration form from Student Services.

Another way to register is to download an application form from www.ok.gov, or obtain one from public places such as libraries, tag agencies and post offices. The County Election Board also provides them. You still have to mail the form in yourself if you choose any of these options.

The Trend believes voting is extremely important for young people to do. Not enough people from our generation exercise this right. With the primaries this spring and then the general election this fall, it is an important time to vote. College students could really make a difference in this election if they simply went and voted. All it takes is a quick trip to the nearest voting precinct.

The Trend believes it is important for our generation to care about what happens in our government. We are fortunate enough to live in a country where we are allowed this right, so everyone should take advantage of that by voting.