Student-run organization looks to collect names for environmental issues

A student-run organization at Kent State called Power Vote is currently on a mission to collect 1,000 signatures by the end of the week to raise awareness for environmental issues.

“We want to take the signatures and hopefully show them to the next president, and we want to make it known by building this movement of students that we care about these issues and that we want them to be a focus in this election,” said Kyle Galindez, the Power Vote organizer at Kent State.

Kent State’s Power Vote chapter is currently competing against other Ohio universities to collect the 1,000 pledges. If they meet the goal, Galindez said that chapter will win a prize yet to be determined.

“This week is very important for Kent State because we have challenged other schools in Ohio like Ohio State and Youngstown State to get 1,000 pledges by the end of this week,” Galindez said.

Power Vote is a campaign for an organization called Energy Action Coalition, which started as a youth voter outreach. The organization primarily focuses on issues such as shifting away from dirty energy like oil and nuclear power, and turning to clean air energy sources like wind and solar power to help clean up the environment and atmosphere.

Aside from this week’s competition, Power Vote’s overall goal is to get 1 million signatures before Election Day, Nov. 4. They currently have more than 200,000 Power Vote pledges nationwide and they hope to get 50,000 more this week alone.

Power Vote currently has about 300 chapters all over the United States and a few in Canada.

Some students are indifferent about the overall goal that the campaign is trying to obtain.

“I think it’s a good idea, but I’m not sure how successful it will be,” said freshman fashion design major Rita Yoder.” I think it’s good for us to wean ourselves away from globalization and focus more on our own economy which needs attention.”

Some are optimistic about Power Vote’s overall cause and campaign goal.

“Signing a pledge for Power Vote is important because it raises awareness to our candidates,” said freshman psychology major Heidee Miller .

Along with the promising number of signatures that have been collected at Kent State alone, there are even greater numbers of supporters online. Power Vote currently has its own group and application on Facebook. One of the groups has more than 5,000 supporters.

People who are interested in supporting this campaign can sign up with one of the campaign volunteers by filling out a form, or they can log onto their Web site and sign up there.

Contact news correspondent Megan Moore at [email protected].