A team of students and administrators finalized plans last week to institute WesVotes, a partnership between the Wesleyan Student Assembly (WSA) and various administrative offices aimed at aiding students in the registration and voting processes. The program, currently led by a bipartisan group of University students, represents a major step towards increasing voter turnout within the campus community.
The program’s mission is two-fold: one, to raise awareness among the student body about civic engagement; and two, to facilitate both the registration and voting processes for University students. Both the Office of Residential Life (ResLife) and the Office of the University Registrar have worked closely with students to make the program a reality.
The program itself was a direct reaction to poor turnout of college-age voters in past elections, said Chris Goy ’09, former president of the Wesleyan Democrats and the main organizer of WesVotes.
“There are may people who become disenfranchised by being in college,” said Goy, who attributes this to students’ busy schedules and the fact that many of them are from out-of-state.
Goy also notes that voters between the ages of 18 and 24 make up a substantial segment of the country’s population.
“The fact that [this portion] of the population is underrepresented is shameful,” said Goy.
Thanks to the Registrar’s Office, students can now find a link to DeclareYourself.org at the top of their Electronic Portfolios, where they can register to vote, request absentee ballots, and view information about voting and the election process. With the help of ResLife, students can also register to vote or obtain an absentee ballot through a WesVotes representative who lives in their residence hall. This makes the program especially helpful for students who do not wish to vote in the state of Connecticut.
“We have asked each RA to identify a Hall Captain,” said Director of Residential Life Fran Koerting in an email. “Hall Captains will discuss voter registration with their neighbors and assist each person individually to register to vote or request an absentee ballot.”
For students who will be voting in Middletown on Nov. 4, the WesVotes team has coordinated with the Office of Community Service to make both registration and voting as simple as possible.
“Students can drop off their registration cards at a designated drop box at WesStation, where we will collect them and deliver them to City Hall,” said Director of Community Service and Volunteerism Cathy Crimmins Lechowicz. “The [Center for Community Partnerships] will also provide transportation on the day of the election to transport students to their designated polling station.”
She added that vans would be leaving roughly every half-hour from the Usdan University Center on Election Day.
WesVotes has no plans to stop its services once the upcoming election has passed.
“The purpose is to create a system of institutionalized voter registration,” said Goy, who shares this vision of the program’s endurance with Director of Student Activities and Leadership Development Tim Shiner. Shiner, whose office has been active in the establishment of the WesVotes program, believes that it is an important addition to the Wesleyan community.
“My hope is that having a central group of students which brings together the various stakeholders will…assist in sparking greater civic engagement in the student body and the larger community,” he said. “I hope to work with the students involved from year to year to provide continuity in their efforts.”
Many students agree that WesVotes is a welcome addition to the University, especially since the program caters to the student who has a full schedule and would therefore be less inclined to vote.
“Almost everyone knows what’s going on in the election,” said Sam Hecht ’12. “But for most people there’s just no motivation. It would really help a lot if students could vote from their dorm rooms.”
“Wesleyan students don’t need a hand-out,” said Goy, “but they do deserve the right information.”
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