Civic Responsibility at Elon is Through the Roof
During the 2020 elections, Elon University pulled out all of the stops in order to promote the importance of exercising the right to vote. It most definitely made an impact in 2021.
Around the time of the elections, Elon Votes!, a nonpartisan campus initiative created to provide students with the necessary resources to register to vote and to cast their ballots, advertised voting all over campus. Pins and stickers were handed out to people saying “Vote!,” posters were put up in different academic buildings, and announcements were made in weekly emails encouraging students to reach out to Elon Votes! for voting information.
The results of their hard work paid off in dividends.
During the 2020 Presidential election, 74% of Elon students casted ballots. That is eight percentage points higher than the national average, and 25.2 percentage points higher than the number of voters during the 2016 election on Elon’s campus. Furthermore, Elon was recognized by Turbovote as the fifth highest university in the country for voter registration!
Trevor Molin, the current Director for Civic Engagement for Elon Volunteers, had an inside look at all of the work that Elon Votes! did and how it impacted the campus.
“To me, I see the higher voting averages as showing that this wasn’t just because of the general trend of higher turnout that we saw across the nation, but there is something specific going on at Elon,” he said. “What that something is, I’m not sure, but I would like to think that it was the work that Elon Votes! did last year.”
This level of political participation is inspiring—especially for such a young amount of voters. The community has continued the political enthusiasm with the state elections that happened on November 2, 2021. Signs encouraging people to vote and directing people to voting locations were posted all over campus. Truly, the school was buzzing.
As newer voters, civic responsibility is not something that is common to the college student age group. Electing individuals to represent the general public is essential to democracy, and the statistics show how well Elon has done in teaching its students how important voting is. The work that Elon Votes! has done is paving the way for Elon to remain at the forefront of the political game. It is vital for all students to continue to use their voices to vote for what they believe in!
Photo from Unsplash.