After next week Binghamton University students won’t have any excuse for not voting in the upcoming presidential election, as a band of student groups will set up voter registration spots all over campus.

From Sept. 15 to 19, BU’s chapter of the New York Public Interest Research Group has organized registration stations in a number of different locations on campus for their Voter Registration Blitz. Locations include the residence halls between the hours of 8 p.m. and midnight. Students will also be able to register in the Susquehanna and Hillside communities.

Additionally, NYPIRG will be tabling in the New University Union from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday and Wednesday. The group, along with the Black Student Union, College Republicans, College Democrats, Circle K and Hillel, the Jewish student union, will also be tabling outside the New Union on Tuesday and Thursday at the same time.

The actual process of registering to vote takes about two minutes, according to NYPIRG President Alex Freundlich, who said students should also be prepared with a photo ID. Freundlich worked with the Office of Student Affairs as well as Residential Life to organize the event, which will also give students the chance to participate in a raffle.

“Students will be given a question and answer sheet focused on voter registration,” he said. “If a student answers a question, either right or wrong, they’re entered.”

Prizes include gift certificates and/or coupons to Hollywood Video, Cold Stone Creamery, Number 5, Lampy’s Mediterranean Grill, Moe’s, Cyber Cafe West and a host of other local businesses.

Freundlich said that last year the group hosted a similar event and registered more than 100 students in one day.

“If we’re able to repeat that for four days … we would be talking about a large number of student residents,” he said, adding that more than 1,000 sign-ups would be amazing, but that he’d be satisfied with 500.

According to Freundlich, the week may make voting easier for students if they register for Broome County because they won’t have to worry about getting an absentee ballot by the Oct. 28 mail-in deadline.

A Facebook group is set to be up and running by Wednesday to advertise the event, and participants have been hanging up posters around campus too.

“Because we’re a public interest group, we feel it’s important to get students’ say in the political process and obviously that includes getting them signed up to vote,” he said.

College Democrats President Brian Young echoed NYPIRG’s sentiments and said that since the primary elections there was a significant increase in youth registration.

“College students want to get their voices out there; there’s a lot of issues that really hit students this year,” he said, citing the war in Iraq, the SUNY budget cuts and the economy.

“We really want to increase voter registration on campus to show politicians that college students really do matter,” Young said.

For more information about the event, contact nypirg@sa.binghamton.edu.