ELECTIONS / VOTER REGISTRATION : Instructors Bring Sign-Up Efforts Into Classrooms : Education: Teachers’ group encourages the active role. Use of class time is approved by officials of the California Community Colleges.

Students enrolled in Ventura County’s three community colleges have been encouraged to vote by an unusual source over the last few days: their teachers.

The Faculty Assn. of California Community Colleges, a Sacramento-based legislative advocacy group for community college instructors, is asking its members to bring voter registration cards to their classes and encourage students to fill them out before the registration closes today.

In response, dozens of teachers at Moorpark, Oxnard and Ventura colleges have been handing out the cards in class or participating in registration drives outside of class.

“I picked up about 350 or 400 voter registration cards last week and brought them here,” said Gary Morgan, an Oxnard College instructor and president of the campus’s academic senate. “By (last) Friday, about two-thirds of them were gone. I would guess we must have registered somewhere around 200 or 300 students.”

Completed voter registration cards must be postmarked by today or turned in at the county Elections Office by the close of business today, elections officials said.

Behind a small card table propped up outside of Oxnard College’s administration building on Monday, student volunteer Juan Solorzano signed up as many people as he could.

“When it comes down to voting, I’m starting to take it more seriously than before because there are a lot of issues that affect me personally,” the 25-year-old art student said.

Within 10 minutes, Solorzano had signed up four new voters.

“They were talking about a lot of the issues in class, so I really wanted to become a part of it,” said Monique Carruthers, a 19-year-old sociology major who registered Monday with the American Independent Party.

Using class time to help register students has been approved by officials of the California Community Colleges in Sacramento.

“Voter registration activities are not only permissible, but should also be encouraged,” according to an August letter from Vice-Chancellor Thomas J. Nussbaum to college presidents and superintendents statewide.

Not all instructors in the Ventura County Community College District support taking class time to register potential voters, however. The academic senate president at Ventura College advised instructors there to work to register voters before or after class.

“I discouraged that because that’s not what (class time) is supposed to be used for,” said Bill Robinson, a math instructor. “The only thing I would disagree with is using class time to register students.”

But at Moorpark College, more than 400 full- and part-time teachers were given a half-dozen blank voter registration cards to distribute to students.

“It’s the first time they’ve been in the classroom,” said Steven Pollock, the president of the Moorpark College academic senate. “But faculty members on their own have done this in the past.

“This was a strategy that the faculty this time used to encourage individuals to register,” Pollock said. “This is just another attempt to attract those students who have not yet registered to do so.”

The executive director of the Faculty Assn. of California Community Colleges said he expects the statewide registration drive to net tens of thousands of new voters.

“By Tuesday at midnight, we think we’ll have registered approximately 100,000 newly registered community college students,” said Patrick McCallum. “Newly registered people are the most likely to vote, so that’s going to put 80,000 (new) voters in the polling places.”

Voter Registration Today is the last day to register to vote in the Nov. 8 election.

* Who may register: You must be a U. S. citizen, at least 18 years old on or before Election Day, and a California resident for 29 days before the election. If you move within 28 days of the election, you may vote by returning to your former precinct or by obtaining an absentee ballot for that precinct. If you are in prison or on parole for a felony conviction you are ineligible to vote.

* Reasons to register or re-register:

* If you have never registered to vote.

* If you have moved since the last election.

* If you have changed your name.

* If you want to change your party affiliation.

* How and where to register: Mail-in voter registration forms are available at county offices, city halls, fire stations, post offices, libraries and the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Voters can also call the Ventura County Elections Division office at 654-2781. The elections office is at 800 S. Victoria Ave. in the lower plaza of the Hall of Administration. Office hours are 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

* Absentee ballots: Applications for absentee ballots are on the back page of your sample ballot. They may also be obtained in person or by sending a written request to the Elections Division, County Government Center, 800 S. Victoria Ave., Ventura, 93009. Written applications for absentee ballots must be received in the office by Nov. 1. You can obtain an absentee ballot in person at the elections office through Nov. 8, with the option of immediately casting your ballot in the office.

Source: Ventura County elections office.