Five full pages of signatures.

This was the product of Wednesday’s Democracy Day, a collaboration between 10 state colleges to promote a nation same-day voter registration bill.

Katy Bridger, a sophomore in political science, organized the event for her internship with Common Cause North Carolina, a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizens’ lobby organization.

“We are trying to increase voter turnout in North Carolina,” Bridger said.

The goal of the event was to gather these signatures in support of the bill, as well as educate new voters about it. She said she considered the event a success.

“Democracy Day was awesome,” Bridger said. “We’re sending a great, strong, collective message to lawmakers.”

Salem Simmons, a sophomore in communication who assisted at Democracy Day, said the event advocated an meaningful cause.

“We wouldn’t do it if it wasn’t important,” said Simmons said.

Same-day voter registration is a bill which Bridger and others are trying to get passed so voters will not be turned away if they do not register 25 days before the elections, which is the current policy.

“Voting is our right as citizens. We should want to get our voice out there. So many people are kept from voting,” said Bridger about the current registration policy.

Some students, like sophomore in electrical engineering Billy Nguyen, are not convinced that the same-day voter registration bill will increase voter turnout. This especially applies, he said, to students.

“Politicians’ agendas are not directed toward college kids,” Nguyen said.

This is evident in some of the issues that emerge year after year.

“I’m not paying for three kids and a mortgage,” Pat Wheeler, a sophomore in economics, said. “Tax cuts don’t apply to me.”

But the trend isn’t limited toward college students.

“People are really apathetic about voting and people take our right to vote for granted,” said Chris Tunstall.

Bobby Mills, a freshman in political science, said he thinks the reason for apathy in this age group is because “kids are getting wrapped up in different things.”

“We’re in school — that’s our top priority,” he said.

Mills said he does feel that it is important to be engaged and said, “as long as we get one person involved, we can go from there.”

Bridger said now, more than half of North Carolina adults do not vote, a statistic she said she hopes the same-day voter registration bill will decrease.

Out of 400,000 people in the age group of 18 to 24, 250,000 are under 25 years of age; this is the age group with the lowest voter turn-out.

“Too many people think the outcome will have no affect on their lives,” Geoff Tompkins, a sophomore in computer science, said.

Bridger said it is the responsibility of citizens to be informed and that college students especially need to realize that their opinions matter.

“We are where the future lies,” Simmons said.