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Credit unions may be a convenient place to obtain a loan, open a savings account or, now, register to vote.
Utah credit unions launched a 30-day campaign Wednesday at the Capitol seeking to make it easier for the state's estimated 750,000 unregistered adults to get on Utah voter rolls before next month's political-party caucuses, the first step to nominating candidates.
"We're trying to make that as easy as possible," by allowing registration at credit-union branches or finding links online at utahscreditunions.org, said Scott Simpson, president of the Utah Credit Union Association.
He said many may ask why the association is doing the campaign now instead of nearer to the November general election. He said the election in many cases would be over long before then — with March caucuses, April conventions and June primaries choosing real winners in heavily Republican Utah.
Simpson said when he was the executive director of the state GOP, it never spent a dime to contact anyone who was not a registered voter. "If you are not registered, you really are not part of the dialogue."
Credit unions had about 100 of their members who had just registered at their announcement, in front of decorations depicting the beginning of a race with the theme: Ready, Set, Vote.
"We're walking the walk by registering our employees and members to vote and encourage the public to join us," he said.