Across the United States, Campus Communities Surge to Get Out the Vote

College students across the United States converged on election polling locations, many located on their own campuses and in student center hubs, for early voting in the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election. They walked, marched in parades, arrived in campus shuttles, and took advantage of free Uber rides provided by their student government associations.

In North Carolina, the 11 HBCUs—second most of any state—kicked off a statewide tour of campuses on October 17 to celebrate the first day of early voting in the state. Moving from campus to campus, events ranged from game nights, voter information sessions, and, at North Carolina Central University, a parade.

Led by Durham, North Carolina, Mayor Leonardo Williams and Chancellor Karrie Dixon, with backing from the NC Central’s marching band, the NCCU Sound Machine, students marched, danced, and sang to the polls, carrying banners and handing out election information. North Carolina’s HBCUs represent over 40,000 voters in a state where Donald Trump had one of his narrowest margins of victory over President Joe Biden in 2020—just 74,481 votes.

North Carolina Central University’s Sound Machine Marching Band helped kick-off the school’s participation in the start of early voting with a parade to a nearby polling place. The award-winning marching band joined hundreds of students, the mayor of Durham, North Carolina, and the university’s chancellor, in the celebration. Credit: North Carolina Central University

Parades is just one of the ways students are engaging with voting, be it early or on Election Day (November 5). Purdue University students gathered earlier this week at Purdue Memorial Union to kick off their “Purdue Parade to the Polls.” At Temple University, students gathered at the campus bell tower before walking to the polls; and at Baldwin Wallace University, the student union’s Center for Community Engagement included food trucks, transportation, and candidate materials during its parade. The University of Illinois–Chicago tweaked the name of its event to “Party to the Polls” earlier this week, and Indiana University–South Bend student organizations are joining other student-led efforts across the country to get out the vote.

At Pennsylvania State University, the student organization PSU Votes has facilitated student voting since early this spring, sharing resources, conducting voter registration drives, and operating social media accounts. PSU graduate student and PSU Votes intern Maddie Hindman urged students to take voting seriously and to plan ahead for the event.

Student volunteers with Penn Leads the Vote at Pennsylvania State University provide voter registration and voting information for the campus community. The student-run, non-partisan program works to increase voter engagement and voting while advancing Penn’s role of supporting the democratic and civic engagement of Penn students. Credit: University of Pennsylvania

“I suggest students get serious about their vote. Young people have the potential to make a huge impact on the outcome of this year’s elections at the federal, state, and local level,” said Hindman in a PSU news release. “Don’t put things off until the last minute. Check your polling location before it’s too late and make a plan to vote that is right for you. There are a plethora of nonpartisan resources to help students make informed plans to vote.”

Hindman said she believed students were becoming more informed about the importance of voting, and one example was University of Wisconsin–Madison senior Sadie Rosenthal, who told Agence France-Presse that she purposely changed her voter registration from her native Maryland to Wisconsin. “I know my vote is so incredibly important here as an out-of-state student, so I wasn’t even hesitant when it came to switching my registration,” she told the news service. Fellow Wisconsin classmate Reese McLean agreed, having switched from New York to Wisconsin. “I knew my vote would make more of a difference here.”

The race in Wisconsin in 2020 was another close one, with President Joe Biden winning by 20,682, which was the tipping-point state for his overall election win.

Some campuses, like Miami University, developed their own voter registration and information sites, including information gathering programs like Qualtrics to walk students through the online voter registrations process. One of the most used voter support apps is TurboVote, created by the nonprofit Democracy Works. Universities, student organizations, and other nonprofits have partnered with TurboVote to offer their own unique portals that have a real-time election countdown clock, voter registration information, state-by-state instructions on voting by mail, and a system to verify your own registration.

The University of Alabama, the University of Cincinnati, the University of Delaware, the University of Nebraska–Omaha, Rice University, University of Rochester, and Washington University in St. Louis are just a few of the ACUI member campuses that are using TurboVote this year to benefit students. At Indiana University, the student government is offering two free Uber rides through the TurboVote portal to any student needing transportation to the polls.

In Illinois, McClean County Clerk Kathy Michael said she had never seen such heavy early voter turnout at Illinois State University’s Bone Student Center in her 14 years on the job, and that the site was now in a contest with a polling place at a local mall to see which would have the highest early voter turnout. “It’s amazing,” she told the student newspaper The Vidette. “And now Eastland Mall and Bone are in a contest because they are so close with who has the most voters.”

Texas State University’s Student Involvement and Engagement Department put Instagram to work assisting students on how to vote, including a live, recorded visit to the polls by a student—from parking to entering the polling place.

Julia Haley, Georgia Tech’s vice president of the Undergraduate Student Government Association, assisted in coordinating early voting at the John Lewis Student Center. “I’m thrilled that Georgia Tech will be hosting early voting again this year for this important election, and it feels especially significant to be holding the polling location in a building named for voting rights advocate John Lewis,” she said. “I hope that having a convenient voting location on campus will encourage students, whether they are registered on-campus or elsewhere in Fulton County, to engage in the upcoming election.”

At Miami University, the associated student government went so far to provide instruction for students for every possible type of voting: in-person early voting, out-of-state absentee, in-state absentee, and in-person Election Day voting, all through the Voting Navigator. And this Friday, November 1, the Center for Student Engagement, Activities, and Leadership will provide a free bus for students to drop off Ohio absentee ballots at the local county board of elections.