It’s been impossible over the last few weeks to walk around anywhere in the city, Main Campus included, unperturbed. People asking, neigh, demanding to know if you’ve registered to vote have been everywhere.

But while the fact that I can’t seem to walk more than two blocks without being accosted by a smiling, clipboard-wielding volunteer has been mildly frustrating, I have benignly smiled and informed them that I have indeed at every brief interruption. It’s but a minor inconvenience and one that is easily tolerable when you consider their intentions.

Voter turnout in this country, especially among young college students, is dismal. Want a perspective on that? According to US Census Bureau data, voter turnout for the 2008 presidential election was 64 percent nationally, but only 49 among those ages 18 to 24. And that was up by a couple percentage points from the previous election.

I think we can do a little better than that. And these volunteers are just doing their best to make sure we do.

Well I don’t own a clipboard, but I do write a lot. So I’m going to do what I can.

Register to vote, please. In case you are unaware, the deadline is Oct. 9, so I would get on it if I were you.