Vote locally

I would like to commend Annie Ross for a thoughtful, well-written

article about student voting ("Your vote, your future," Sept. 7).

I'd like to reemphasize Ross' point about local elections, and I encourage all students who are not from swing states to (re)-register to vote this fall at their Tufts campus address. When politicians see that large numbers of students are all voting in the same district, they will wake up and take our concerns into account. We live in Medford/Somerville for nine months of the year, and we certainly should have a say in what goes on in our adopted hometown.

At Brandeis University in 2000, just a few miles away, students organized a massive on-campus voter registration drive. They were so successful in placing pressure on their local representatives that the representative who won the election actually redistricted Brandeis out of his district, so that he wouldn't have to listen to them anymore!

While this particular story has an ironic end, it is an amazing testament to the power students can have when they are organized and voting together as part of a larger voting bloc in one area. I would love to see something similar happen at Tufts this fall. We have the power to swing elections, so let's get out there and make our voices heard!