Empty US college campuses are making it harder for students to vote
With less than three months until the presidential election, college campuses across the country should be buzzing with efforts to get out the vote. But, 2020 is no ordinary election year. The coronavirus pandemic has forced many universities to shut their campuses down, and students are experiencing growing voter suppression efforts.
Now, in addition to mastering remote learning, students are trying to figure out how to make their ballot count this fall. Some will have to reregister to vote from their home towns, while others will have to vote by mail.
“For many, this is a new process. And it’s not easy to figure out the correct steps because [registration and voter] requirements vary by state,” explained Harrison Feinman, a University of Pennsylvania junior and the director of Penn Leads the Vote, a student-run program that increases voter engagement. “Students are definitely concerned.”
Even without a global pandemic, voting as a college student can be tough. After student activists fought to get the voting age lowered to 18 in 1971, almost half of all eligible voters participated in the 1972 election, then participation steadily dropped. Part of this decline can be attributed to students facing confusing voter ID laws, residency requirements and a dearth of polling places on campus.
Student voting had picked up again after Trump’s victory – with nearly 40% of eligible student voters participating in the 2018 midterm elections, up from 19% in 2014, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement. But that may change again this year.
A recent poll by NextGen America found that more than half of voters under the age of 35 feel they don’t have the resources or knowledge they need to vote by mail in November. And campus closures mixed with active suppression efforts are creating the “perfect storm” for keeping students from casting their ballot, especially as many turn to mail-in voting, according to Nancy Thomas, the director at the Tufts University’s Institute for Democracy and Higher Education.
In Pennsylvania, a politically competitive swing state, Feinman said structural issues like mail delays could disenfranchise students. Students need to apply for a ballot with a paper request form if they don’t have in-state driver’s licenses, which requires having a printer. And there’s the issue of postal service delays.
“Due to the USPS delays, students are concerned about not meeting deadlines,” Feinman said. “That means they’re up against two deadlines instead of one where mail delays could prohibit them from voting.”
But, Pennsylvania isn’t the only state with laws that could put student voting at risk. In New Hampshire, Republicans put forth a law requiring voters to have an in-state driver’s license if they intend to drive in the state, which many students do not. In Wisconsin, students are at high risk of being purged from voter rolls.
Meanwhile, college students are particularly vulnerable to ballot issues. In the 2020 primaries, NPR recently found that more than 550,000 ballots had been rejected, with experts finding that first-time absentee and young voters were more likely to make the kinds of mistakes that led to rejected ballots.
All of these issues could have a defining impact on the election results, particularly since most college students lean Democrat.
“We can’t assume that all students will support one party or candidate, but we’ve pointed to several states where the number of students exceeded the margin of victory,” said Thomas, referring to the student voters who swayed the Wisconsin primary in 2018. “For college students living away from home, they are being represented by elected officials near the campus. It is in their best interest to let them know that they are there and their voices should be heard on matters of policy.”
Young voters have the power to influence the outcomes in dozens of states across the country this year, especially those with competitive races like North Carolina and Florida, where there is a high population of younger voters who tend to have a different voting choice than their older counterparts.
Organizations like Campus Vote Project have been leading campusbased voting programs around the country since 2014. Student fellows, paid staff and faculty push the initiatives which normally include hosting events and tabling outside of busy areas of campus. Now, they are hoping online programs will be enough to help students figure out how to vote in November.
“We are trying to provide students with an understanding of how to vote and where to vote,” explained Raaheela Ahmed, the deputy director at Campus Vote Project. “There were a number of states where things went wrong with vote-by-mail this past primary season. Our organization is trying to make sure that the systems in place are successful and won’t further disenfranchise marginalized communities.”
But between inconsistent voting laws and an attack on the USPS, Ahmed fears the chaos of the primaries were just a peek into what might happen in November.
“My nightmare is what happened during the primary where changes to election dates and election rules were happening up and through 24 hours from those elections,” said Ahmed. “Something like that can completely derail and demotivate voters on all levels. It’s not just students, it’s every type of voter that could be affected.”