For many college students, the 2024 election was their first time voting in a presidential election. With an array of political disputes and hot topics on the line, students came together on National Voter Registration Day to speak out about why voting matters.
The event was hosted on Sept. 17 by the Biden School of Public Policy and Make It Count, a student-led registered student organization (RSO) dedicated to encouraging the youth to vote. The Green was lined with educational booths and student volunteers providing information on how to register to vote.
“It’s really important that everyone feels empowered to vote,” Patrick Williams, a junior political science major and current president of Make It Count said. “Even if you don’t care about politics, everything you care about is affected by politics.”
Volunteers handed out t-shirts, stickers and necklaces to students who completed their voter registration. Tents were decorated with flags, signs and even cardboard cutouts of the two presidential candidates. Signs were printed out with QR codes that took students directly to voting resources.
With the encouragement to vote comes the suspicion of not being heard. Historically, young voters have been disengaged from voting as they believe their vote does not matter. Williams disagreed with the idea.
“If you are not interested in voting, I understand why, it can be hard to fight the apathy there,” Williams said. “If you want people’s interests to be more pressing, politicians respond to their voting base and their constituents. They want to know who are the active voters. If young people became a bigger voting block, you would see more responses from politicians.”
Make It Count was established as an RSO after the 2016 election. According to Williams, students were put off by the lack of young people voting. The club temporarily went inactive in 2022 due to members graduating. With the upcoming 2024 election, students and faculty successfully brought back the RSO.
The voter registration event assisted out-of-state students in applying for absentee ballots. There were concerns about transportation to go home for a single day to vote. The event displayed the process as more accessible than some may think.
Students were met with food, music and games as they made their way down the event. YouDee, the university’s mascot, greeted students throughout the day, high-fiving those who signed up to vote. Lizzie Conan, a freshman public policy major, was a student volunteer at the event, greeting eventgoers.
“It is your right to vote,” Conan said. “You are in America, get your voice heard and get out there. People have been very nice, we have been giving out goodies and getting people to register.”
Make It Count utilizes the TurboVote app, which automatically allows users to request an absentee ballot and sign up for election reminders. Students broke the single-day record of TurboVote with 664 signups received on Sept. 15. By the end of the week, more than 1,000 individuals were signed up to vote.
With nominees Kamala Harris and Donald Trump taking on the presidential battleground, Williams has noticed a difference in energy around student voters in comparison to previous elections.
“We have groups who are energized to vote for Harris and see what a future would look like under her,” Williams said. “We also have groups who are energized to vote in the opposite direction, it’s the first time in a while we have two very different directions the country could go in.”
Alongside students, faculty members also partook in the festivities. Kirby Lynch, the university’s spirit coordinator, helped set up and facilitate the event.
“When the classes all change we get a lot of traffic,” Lynch said. “ UD is trying to get people involved in registering to vote. These are the people who are going to live with the decisions with the longest, so it’s very important that as soon as you are old enough, to have your voice be heard.”
Outside Voter Registration Day, Williams believes that engaging in a community is an important way to spread the value of voting.
“The most important thing people can do is as a community be more open to talking about voting and how to do it,” Williams said. “You talk about voting, its importance and how to do it. Anyone can do that to any friend they have.”
As the election inches closer, so do voter registration deadlines per state. “Even though the election has passed, the drive for Generation Z to get involved in politics continues on.
“Every single individual vote contributes to an overall tally, the results of which are often pretty close,” Williams said. “You can’t get complacent.”