FARMINGTON – A passion for democracy unites three local people who staff the voter registration table in the Olsen Student Center. Jack Woods, Michael Hughes and Cyndy Hoeh each have different reasons for being there, but they share the same goal: a greater voter turnout than ever.

“I won’t feel satisfied till everyone on campus is registered and everyone actually votes,” said Woods, 18, a University of Maine at Farmington student from Winslow.

Last spring, Woods ran a voter registration table for a UMF activist club, Social and Environmental Activists for Change, or SEA-Change. He registered more than 150 college students.

But this wasn’t enough. This year he founded the Democratic Club on campus and is running an even more comprehensive voter registration campaign.

In 2002, Woods attended the American Legion’s Dirigo Boys State program, a mock state government consisting of high school juniors from across Maine. Students broke into two major parties, had primaries and elections. Woods ran for governor.

“After that, I left knowing I wanted to be a state representative,” he said.

“I believe in democracy. I want to see it flourish. I don’t think it can flourish without people being engaged.”

He’s after all people in his get-out-the-vote effort, not just Democrats.

“I would rather see a Republican sweep with 100 percent voter turnout than a Democratic sweep with 40 percent turnout,” Woods said.

Troubling apathy

Fellow student Michael Hughes, 21, from Vassalboro, would have given anything as a child to be able to vote. He would have voted for candidates supporting health care reform.

He believes voting is an essential part of “the pursuit of happiness” as cited in the Declaration of Independence. “Getting people to vote is the first step in that process of self-determination.”

Hughes’ primary focus is education. He sits at information tables in the student center for SEA-Change and gives talks about issues like the Palesky tax cap. He works on a plan to combine the Republican Club, the Democratic Club and SEA-Change in a campus coalition designed to educate voters about the ideologies of various parties.

“I work on voter registration because I see the political apathy that pervades American society today,” he said. The apathy troubles him.

“One of the most pragmatic things government does is decide how resources will be distributed to people,” Hughes said. By the time Election Day arrives, Hughes wants to be able to say: “I did all I could to try to get people to take responsibility over themselves.”

The right thing

Cyndy Hoeh of Chesterville, 47, mother of two, wants to be able to say she did all she could.

Hoeh works for SEA-Change by running voter registration tables, helping coordinate informational speakers and passing out fliers about presidential candidates.

But Hoeh also works for Americans Coming Together, a coalition of labor-related groups, funded by unions and other organizations, such as MoveOn.Org. “It’s very grass-roots; their goal is to reach out to communities in Maine and get them to vote,” Hoeh explains. They plan to register 10,000 voters in Maine.

Hoeh also knocks on doors and tries to persuade people to register.

Hoeh was relatively uninvolved with politics until 1981, when the Cold War began fueling the nuclear arms race to levels that were unsettling to the young University of Maine graduate student. “I thought we were heading to nuclear war,” she said. “It scared the hell out of me.”

Her fear led her to a campus group called Maine Peace Action Committee. “It gave me hope that all these cool people working for this cause must make a difference,” she said.

It was this group that led her to the march in New York City in June 1982 during the U.N. Disarmament Conference. A million gathered for the promise of peace.

“I was standing there, and people kept streaming in, as far as the eye could see, people who had the same thing on their minds and hearts.”

The power she felt working for political action would change her life forever. “I realized I could never turn my back on it,” Hoeh said.

Although Hoeh struggles to balance her responsibilities as a mom with her voter activism, she feels she is doing the right thing. “I do it also to set an example for my kids. I want to teach them that it’s something a responsible person does.”