With the presidential election nearing, the primary goal for the Hinckley Institute is to get students on the U campus registered to vote. There are several events planned to get students excited about voting and a new app that will register students to vote in a matter of minutes.
TurboVote is a voter registration app that allows college students from all over the country get registered to vote.
“The thing that’s so great about TurboVote…previously we could only register students living in Salt Lake County, but with TurboVote we can get students living in all the counties in Utah,” said Hinckley student staffer Gerrit Seymour.
TurboVote is a way for students to quickly register to vote. It is available on all types of devices and requires a state issued license. Students can enter their demographics and in about five minutes, they are one step closer to completing the voting process.
In the past, U students registered in Salt Lake County would need travel down to the county building to vote, but now they can vote on campus. Those students outside of Salt Lake County will need to find their appropriate polling location and those that are out of state will need to make special arrangements for voting, such as completing an absentee ballot.
The Hinckley Institute has planned events that will help students get excited about voting. There are debate-watching parties for students to gather and eat food while watching the presidential candidates on TV battle on the debate stage. The first debate party was on Sept. 26 and several hundred students were in attendance. The next debate party will be on Oct. 19.
“[Hinckley events] help promote engagement and conversation on campus,” said student Spencer Bailey.
The last day to register to vote is Nov. 1, and volunteers from various organizations on campus will be helping students get registered. They will be at five locations on campus, including the Marriott Library and President’s Circle.
On Nov. 8, the night of the election, there will be an election party in the Lassonde Building.
“Students can come, get some food, talk about the results and see what’s happening across the country,” Seymour said.
This year’s presidential election will either draw a large crowd of student voters, or students will choose to abstain from voting for various reasons.
“This is a historic election between two people with very different viewpoints,” Bailey said.
Presidential election years are highly publicized and more people are likely to vote than in off- years. Bailey would like to see more campus events that focus on local elections.
“It needs to be illustrated how important it is to vote to participate in local, off-year elections. Young people tend to care every four years—when there is a presidential election,” Bailey said.
The election events the Hinckley Institute has planned this year are directed towards all students on campus—to help get them get excited about voting.
“I think that we need to help students understand that even if you don’t like politics, it affects you anyway and you should participate,” Seymour said.
@TheRachEF