Marsayuh Johnson positions himself in the same shady spot on Arizona State University’s Downtown Phoenix Campus around 1 p.m. each weekday.
“Excuse me,” he says to the students passing him by. Some step to the side and talk with him. Others simply ignore him and keep walking with their heads down.
Despite the 100 degree heat, he will remain there for the rest of the day, meeting and educating as many people that will allow him to about voting in the upcoming election.
If he’s lucky, at the end of their conversation he will be able to register them to vote in Arizona, and can send them off with a better look at the world of politics and the power they have within it.
“Just seeing people’s reactions to having the chance to change the world around them, not just globally, but in their own communities is a really cool thing,” Johnson said.
With the midterm election just around the corner, the number of solicitors, like Johnson, on and around college campuses are increasing. The goal for of the majority of these individuals remains the same – getting young people interested and involved in politics.
Johnson may have more luck registering voters on campus than his older counterparts. At 24 years old, he’s around the same age as most of the people he talks to, making him more approachable and easier to communicate with for students.
“He’s very pleasant to speak with,” Sam Datin, a sophomore at ASU, said of Johnson. “A lot of the time the solicitors on campus can be annoying and irritating, especially when you’re running late to class, but that wasn’t my experience at all with Marsayuh.”
Johnson uses his age as an advantage. He talks to students in the same way he would with any of his friends, a skill that many older solicitors lack.
“It’s easier for me to get the picture through their heads,” Johnson said. “If they don’t register, I can certainly make them second guess their decision.”
Johnson finds joy in his job as a solicitor. GThe process of getting students interested in politics, allows him to learn from the people he speaks with about their own unique experiences.
“Sometimes when I’m out here I tell myself I’m at work, but a lot of the people out here that are actually getting registered have some really interesting stories about what [voting] means to them,” Johnson said.
Many solicitors choose to spend their days registering students to vote for the same reason as Johnson – money, and an interest in involving young people in the democratic process. But for others, worries of what the future of our country may look like motivates them to get people involved in voting.
“Let me put it this way,” Victor Aronow, a more outspoken solicitor, said. “If [young people] don’t use their right to vote today, they’re going to have to use force and more drastic means to keep this country from turning into a dictatorship in the future.”
Aronow recommends that students attend local and state level government meetings in order to “keep up and speak out on issues that matter to them.”
Another solicitor who focuses her efforts on ASU students, Marge Cawley, shares the belief that young people being educated on our government system is crucial to the future of the country, aside from political views.
“[Young people] are going to start running the country, so they certainly need to get involved to know what’s going on,” Cawley said.