It’s the time of the season, or so the saying goes, when we are all ambushed by unskippable political ads, family discussions at the dinner table and those annoying spam texts from “Jen, your local party representative.” But have you noticed that none of these ever tells you how to get up and vote?
Voting is a fundamental part of our democracy. Compared to 2020, when the voting rate among college students reached 66%, the 2022 primaries fell short at 46%. This might have a lot to do with a common fallacy that only presidential elections influence your life.
So how do we get these numbers up? We need to promote poll volunteers, register voters on campus and keep people informed about voter registration laws for college students. Most people do not know that you only need to live in a place for 30 days before election day to register to vote.
We need to promote resources like Headcount, which is an amazing, user-friendly resource that allows people to check their registration no matter what state they reside in. It allows for full registration and volunteer opportunities at public events like concerts and live shows all over the country.
Though public outreach at events like a Green Day concert or other public shows would be a good way to register a few voters, it would be more beneficial for these groups to be on college campuses. If there was a Voter Registration Week on campus this would be easily attainable. Even a schoolwide event on National Voter Registration Day would be a valuable resource for students to educate themselves.
As much as I would like to take credit for this idea, I am not the only one to think voting needs to be taken more seriously on campuses. There are many nonpartisan organizations and foundations that agree having polling stations on campuses not only will increase the percentage of voters in each state, but also show how serious universities are about student voting.
Finding a poll near you is the easy part, but managing how to get there is not. Less than 50% of college students have cars and without the freedom of transportation, not only are your chances of voting slim, but the closest poll is over three miles away or a 50-minute walk. This would not be a concern if polls were on campus.
Harvard Kennedy Institute of Politics has reported 53% of young Americans said they would be voting in the upcoming election. I predict that if college students had more education available to them on the topic and the university promoted registration, this number would go up superseding 75%.
All in all, better access to voter registration and information is pertinent, not just for the upcoming election, but for every election after. Every person has the right to vote but not every person has access to the same resources to vote. Colleges need to support students’ constitutional right to vote by providing polls to be on campuses all over the country.
Register to vote at headcount.org and check your state’s voter registration requirements.
