Proclamation 3614—College Students Registration Week, 1964

Whereas American college students of voting age who attend schools outside their state of legal residence often find themselves unable to vote because they have failed to register; and

Whereas only twenty-one states permit absentee registration compared to forty-seven states which permit absentee voting; and

Whereas a recent poll conducted for the American Heritage Foundation indicated only thirty-eight per cent of men and women age twenty-one through twenty-nine were likely to vote in the forth-coming election; and

Whereas only fifty-two per cent of these young people cast a ballot in recent presidential elections compared to eighty-two per cent of men and women in their sixties; and

Whereas forty-four of forty-eight states with registration rules have closing dates for registering after most students have returned to college and university campuses:

Now, Therefore, I, Lyndon B. Johnson, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate the week beginning September 6, 1964, as College Students Registration Week, 1964; and I urge that a special effort be made during this week to ensure maximum registration of qualified students.

I also invite and urge all local election officials throughout the United States to join with private citizens and citizen organizations, as well as newspapers, radio and television stations, to publicize registration arrangements during that week to bring the greatest possible number of our college students to the polls on November 3.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States of America to be affixed.

DONE at the City of Washington this fifth day of September in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and sixty-four and of the Independence of the United States of America the one hundred and eighty-ninth.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

By the President:

DEAN RUSK,

Secretary of State.