In an election year that may draw record voter turnout, campus and local activists have capitalized on the dramatic spike in youth enthusiasm.
Campus groups, such as the non-partisan Columbia Political Union and the Columbia Democrats, have worked to register student voters and Harlem and Morningside Heights voters, collecting among them almost 1,000 registrations. Voter registration in New York ends today.
After years of registration outreach campaigns that reached only small numbers of students, CPU has registered approximately 400 new voters since the week of the New Student Orientation Program , according to Director of Operations Caitlin Halpern, CC ’09. CPU volunteers scoured John Jay Dining Hall during NSOP, staked out the enormous audience of September’s ServiceNation, and wandered campus later that month asking students if they were registered to vote—campaigns that were successful in posting numbers that far outstripped years past.
Halpern thought that her group’s initiatives have been bolstered by newfound political enthusiasm on campus. In non-presidential election years, she said, it is more difficult to recruit volunteers and convince young people to take the time to register. This year, however, “people are thinking about the election so much there is almost no excuse not to register.”
This enthusiasm was echoed during a recent voter campaign CPU conducted on 125th Street in Harlem last week, when the organization drew local residents to its registration table.
“We usually say things like, ‘You might not care now, but you might want to vote when Election Day comes around,’” Halpern said. “We try to stress that if there is something you complain about but don’t vote, you lose your right to complain.”
Local activists have also taken advantage of the upswing of interest in the election. The storefront on Broadway and 105th Street, launched by the Three Parks Independent Democrats and Broadway Democrats, has played host to sponsor drives, with a core of about 200 to 300 volunteers manning tables on sidewalks and street corners.
According to storefront manager Lynn Max, the Democrats have collected nearly 5,700 registrations from new voters of all political affiliations.
“Not just young people are feeling it this year,” Max said. “People in their 40s and 50s are inspired to vote for the first time this year.” She added that some members of the Columbia Democrats have participated in the group’s initiatives.
Kate O’Gorman, BC ’10, one of the Columbia Democrats’ four lead activists, said her group has encouraged collaboration with other organizations such as the Muslim Students Association, CUArts, and the Columbia Queer Alliance. The campus Democrats, she said, were “trying to create a voting culture on campus.”
Gorman said that this year’s efforts are driven by the idea that “regardless if you’re Democratic or Republican, the more students vote, the more of a voice we have. ... Voting provides an opportunity to express your opinion on Election Day and empowers you to say to your leaders, ‘I want this done while you are in office.’”
Max recalled the way the crowd spilled out of the storefront onto Broadway at a recent debate-watching party and said it highlighted the youth enthusiasm she has seen in her work. “Easily half of the people in attendance were in their 20s,” she said. “It was absolutely wonderful to see that outpouring of support.”
