Thousands of students contacted to update their voter registration as they arrive at UC Santa Barbara

ISLA VISTA, Calif. - Thousands of returning students to UC Santa Barbara are getting information about the upcoming election at the same time they are preparing for the new school year.

There is a full voter outreach effort on and off campus. It is taking place at the dorms and other student housing.

The UCSB office of Student Engagement & Leadership has posted information on its website and will have it in person as it reaches out to the students.

Reregistration is important for students to get their election materials where they are living.

It can be done with forms in person, through the DMV, the Santa Barbara County Elections Office, and the Secretary of State's office online.

Student voter registration volunteer Bryan Chan said, "Since everybody is new at these dorm halls everybody needs to register and (we're) trying to get that message across you can actually vote and  have your voice heard."

Kathryn Henry made a presentation saying to a large group at the Santa Catalina dorms Monday, "if you were registered to vote before you have a new address or if you were registered congratulations you get to re-register!"

The form has ten steps and the students are guided through them on the spot in case there's a question. There's no mention of candidates or ballot propositions.

"We want to walk you through the forms, it is pretty easy and self-explanatory. There are a couple of things in there we want to make sure you get right, " she said. That included signing your name completely inside a specified box and dating the form.

Chan says, "And by being able to be proactive and essentially hand-holding you through the entire process we take the burden off the student to actually fill out the forms and deal with that. Put that burden on us."   

One student said he wanted to get into government work and was happy to see other students getting their registrations done.

Thomas Eddington is a transfer student and came from a junior college near Temecula. "I think it is important. I want to join the student government.  I was in student government in my previous junior college and I think it is a good way to get younger people involved in public service. "

After the students fill out the voter registration form, the volunteer students who are going all over the campus bring the forms to the county elections office.

UCSB Student Engagement & Leadership coordinator with the campus Viviana Marsano said, "Move in voter registration, historically, we have registered  2500  to 2800 students to vote." UCSB has been honored in the past for its voter outreach efforts and registration totals for a college campus in the U.S. She says 89.9 percent of the eligible voters have registered in the past, and of those, most have voted.

After this specific drive, there will also be an outreach on and off the campus for the next month to get to every other student.

"We go to classes, we table, so this is only the first drive that we are doing," she said.

For Chan who has volunteered in the past, "Student voices have that insane ability to turn the tide of an election without student voices then we can't enact real change. As the opinions get to be a little bit more divisive that is what  essentially drives them out to vote."