CSULB falls behind in Ballot Bowl ranking, Lobby Corps determined to move up

Associated Students, Inc.’s Lobby Corps has made headway in its voting issues campaign in an effort to place high in the California University and College Ballot Bowl, a competition between California’s major higher education systems to promote voter participation.

According to Mateo Maya, chief government relations officer, CSULB has dropped in ranking from fifth place to seventh place. With only 610 successful voter registrations, CSULB has about half the number of registered voters as the first place university, California State University, Fullerton, who has gotten 1,200 students to register to vote. 

Maya said he remains determined to get CSULB into the top three ranked universities. 

“I hope by this week we’ll get there…I know we’re going to get there,” Maya said. “I want to win.” 

The subcommittee’s campaign aims to educate students on a variety of different voting issues throughout the next few weeks. Each week, Lobby Corps’ members will publish articles to ASI’s Beachfront publication, along with resources to learn more about different voting issues. 

Published Thursday, the first article of the campaign focuses on voter inequity, and next week’s issue is slated to center around climate change.

Along with other universities, Lobby Corps has faced difficulty with student attendance at voting-related events. Even Fullerton, according to Maya, has only maintained about 15 regular attendees, which is equivalent to the attendance Lobby Corps has noticed at its own events. 

“That number’s pretty normal in every campus,” Maya said. “But Fullerton shared that what was actually very successful was to reach out to organizations. They got the most people to register from ASI members going to club meetings.”

Maya said the campaign should prove to be an effective alternative in reaching students. Next week, students will be able to find the Beachfront articles and resources on ASI’s Instagram and Twitter accounts as well as on the university’s official Instagram account. 

Students can also expect to hear two PSAs rotating on 22 West Radio in the coming week, with one focusing on information relating to voter registration and the other on registering to vote for the Ballot Bowl.