Many students say they support the ‘yes’ side in the transportation vote
Posted February 13, 2015 1:23 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The ‘yes’ side in the upcoming vote on transportation improvements is relying on a younger vote and many students say they’ll show their support when the ballots are mailed out next month.
UBC student leader Bahareh Jokar says if the tax is approved, it would cost students between $30 to $50 more per year — money she thinks many would pay to reduce congestion down the Broadway corridor.
It’s hard enough to get students to vote in a general election and she’s keeping that in mind as she teams up with other leaders to get the word out.
“We’re looking at this as a two-fold process. One is making sure that students are registered. Naturally, this being a mail-in ballot is going to make this process a little bit more difficult. But we want to make sure that students know wha the process will look like. So, [we are] making the information available to them, leading them to the Elections BC website where they can upload their information.”
“For students, one of the major concerns is the fact that they move around fairly frequently and so we want to make sure that they get the ballot at their most recent address. That will be the first component of our outreach campaign. The second component will be making sure that students are actually getting a hold of the ballot and not just tossing it.”
She says many students, specifically those at UBC, use transit every day.
“We’re looking at the benefits that the plan holds. Naturally, public transportation is a huge component of the student experience. At UBC alone, we know that approximately 84 per cent of our undergraduates are commuters and 94 per cent of our graduate students.”
