Creating Your Vision

What is your vision for the campus and/or community?

Our blueprint envisions a campus where every student who wants to vote has a convenient, easy, always available, secure and fast way to register well before the registration deadline. With higher registration numbers our GOTV efforts will be able to impact the turnout decisions of more students on Election Day.

Assessing Your Campus and Community

What campus/community problem does your blueprint address? What structures, practices and policies institutionalize the problem?

Our blueprint addresses a variety of problems, both recurring and new for this cycle. First, the system will allow us to implement a registration infrastructure that is independent of volunteers and allows students to register at their convenience online. Though other online systems exist, our custom built solution will give us complete control of the form, data, output and communications such that errors are minimized beyond the free solutions that we have utilized in past elections. Second, having an online system will allow our organization to lead voter registration on campus rather than compete with other organizations. Most importantly, we need a way to maximize our competitive advantage and experience in a way that is independent of volunteers and has broad reach across campus.

What communities will you work with?

• Campus community

Setting Goals and Deliverables

• Goal 1: Develop and Launch new voter registration system for Penn State University
• Solicit bids and proposals [done]. Finalize contract with 3rd party developer
• Identify and create list of requirements for system
• Test and launch new system and provide feedback to vendor
• Create individual page content (FAQ, map link, etc.)
• Goal 2: Develop strategy to effectively launch, drive and track traffic on the new website
• Website to go live!
• Draft comprehensive strategy to advertise and promote new website; including blogads, fliers, listserves, and more
• Institutionalize the system (integrate into housing announcements, departmental newsletters)
• Summarize and publicize usage
• Goal 3: Increase voter registration and turnout at Penn State University
• Expected: 20,000 total registrations, 65% turnout (13,000 voters)
• Reach: 25,000 total registrations, 70% turnout (17,500 voters)

What is your primary approach? Idea Creation

Why did you choose this approach?

Our approach allows us to build a custom system to address the specific problems we have detailed over the last four elections at PSU and integrate multiple solutions at once.

Did you have secondary approaches? What are they?

Ensures organizational sustainability and competitive advantage on campus.

What will your tactics and activities be?

We will work closely with a 3rd party web development company, our renewed vote coalition and administration officials to ensure successful creation of the system and successful advertising and implementation.

Connecting Back to Vision

How does your strategy contribute to your vision for your campus and/or your community?

The system will allow us to establish a system that - regardless of volunteers, competing organizations, weather and other barriers to registration - enables students to register to vote online in an easy-to-use and secure environment. The system will not only allow us to actually register more students than our prior efforts using less volunteers, it will raise awareness of voting on campus (through new press and institutionalization) and re-establish RPS as the umbrella voter registration organization at PSU once again.

Resources and skills you will need

What skills do you need for this approach?

We already have the technical background to work closely with our web company, but we need a high level of funding such that we can ensure system security and ease of use.