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    • College students work to encourage their peers to vote this year
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    College students work to encourage their peers to vote this year

    Umito Posted on

    New voters on college campuses are trying to impress upon their peers the importance of voting this election cycle. But as with most things, the results of these efforts won’t be known until the election is over.

    Experts are looking to young people to see if and how their participation will influence the outcome of the elections.

    Sean Freeder, an assistant professor of political science at the University of North Florida, teaches an introductory U.S. government course that enrolls about 200 students a year, in addition to graduate-level courses with about 100 students.

    “I would say interest in this election has been pretty high and consistent, not just now but in primaries in past semesters,” he said. “Generally speaking, that’s what we’ve seen in the last election. Trump’s presence on the ballot appears to be sparking renewed interest. I don’t think it’s an exception here.

    One goal is not only to teach students about politics, but also to prepare them to be active in politics, Freer said. This includes hosting events to engage them in early voting and teaching them about absentee voting, what precincts look like and other basic voting training.

    Dejau Travis, 20, is voting this year in his first presidential election.

    Travis said he always “had a soft spot for politics” but that he and his peers became more involved in the 2016 election after seeing how voter demographics changed and influenced the course of the election. history.

    Freer said social science and research indicates that “voting is a habit.”

    “Once you start, you keep doing it,” he said. “So over time, in any given election, from that point on, you might be voting largely from that point on. »

    Travis, a sophomore at Jacksonville University, said he took the 2022 midterm exam and has been interested in politics since childhood.

    In addition to being a voter, he serves as an elections commissioner for the Student Government Association at Jacksonville University, overseeing student body elections and student offices. In this role, Travis helped develop the “Jax Votes” initiative with the goal of registering 500 students to vote between September 17 and October 7. Although they did not meet their goal, their efforts were able to enroll 278 students on campus compared to their goal. between 50 and 60 registrations in previous years.

    “When I looked at my campus, (it) is very politically diverse,” he said. “I wanted to make sure students knew that not only this election but every election matters. The government needs your input, your voice, and you should take advantage of this opportunity. We wanted to remain nonpartisan and focus on the goal of getting students registered to vote.

    Efforts also focused on disseminating information about voting, candidates and ballot changes in Florida, Travis said, taking the initiative to a scale never before achieved.

    “I definitely see political motivation on my campus,” he said. “I would definitely say that my campus is very eager to vote and we have an early voting site right across the street from campus. We’re really pushing students to get out and vote.

    Nevena Trajkov, chair of the political science department at Jacksonville University, described the university as “a bit of a political wasteland.”

    “Students are active and aware, especially political science students,” she said, “but it’s really no different than what we’re seeing across the country.” »

    Trajkov said voter registration offices and dedicated student registration days still exist on campus, although they are different today than they were in the past. Whereas before students had clipboards and helped each other fill out forms, everything is now digital so students can simply scan a QR code without having to discuss registration or ask questions about the process voting.

    Among the reasons students gave for not expecting to be able to vote or being interested in voting this year included not having transportation to a precinct, for which Travis said he was trying to find a solution , like the student shuttle on election day.

    Other students said they didn’t want to vote because they were worried about how their friends or family would react to their vote.

    Discussions about the voting process helped create a comfort level for new voters, Travis said, and he was happy to be able to help.

    He said he plans to vote on the first day of early voting, Oct. 21, at the public library across the street from campus.

    Nuwo Nwobegono, a 21-year-old political science student at Jacksonville University, said it will be his second time voting but his first presidential election.

    Nwobegono said he became interested in politics during the 2016 election and from there he began to question the impact of voting on the world around him.

    He said one of his goals for this election was to convince his mother to vote as well, but overall he hadn’t seen a major change in voter registration or interest in voting. the election on his campus.

    “In this election, I don’t feel like I’m personally represented by either candidate,” Nwobegono said. “I also think not much will change for the good over the next four years, especially if Harris loses. For me, I personally feel like America will be in a similar situation in 2028 as it is now. »

    That’s not an uncommon feeling among young voters, Freer said.

    “One factor that could embitter young voters and cause them to participate less could be the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” he said. “It will be a subset of young voters, particularly those further to the left, (who) might view the two candidates as (too similar) on this issue to be pushed to participate.”

    On the other hand, Freer said young people might also be more inclined to vote now because they want to feel like they’re part of their social circles if they see their friends voting. He added that he has seen a small increase on campus of students wanting to help others register to vote.

    “I would say UNF is probably more typical of an average campus where there is some activity — (in) political clubs, (among) majors,” Freeder said. “If we look at the evolution over time of when people go to vote, it’s not so much a generational thing as it is a story of people getting older.”

    Several factors are driving this phenomenon, Freeder said, such as “life becoming more real” and voters thinking more about real-world impacts than before.

    Trajkov, a professor for about 20 years, said she attributes any increase in student political activity to social media.

    “When we do research, when we see a significant change in trends, we look at what new elements have been introduced,” she said. “Social media is that factor. They get these bits of information at a very palpable level.

    Trajkov said that almost everything is now communicated primarily online.

    “The days of watching students sit down at a table and discuss an issue — even playing devil’s advocate and having a meaningful discussion about it — I rarely see that now,” he said. she declared. “People are very cautious about exchanging political ideas because we have become such a polarized country. For this reason, there is less speech on college campuses today, particularly in Florida.

    When it comes to the impact of youth participation on elections, it is mainly the Democratic Party that hopes that youth participation will exceed that of the rest of the political blocs, Freeder said.

    “Young people have, over the last two decades, systematically moved to the left side of the political spectrum,” he said. “If they voted in the same proportions as the other blocs, the elections would be completely unrecognizable, whereas at the moment it is truly a stalemate. Whether or not young people participate is usually the central issue in the election – and rightly so.”

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