Last Monday Rose House brought in some representatives from Andrew Goodman Foundation to talk about the state of student voting rights. It was really interesting for me to hear what the students in attendance had to say about voting. For some, it wasn’t something that they thought about very much, and for others, it seemed that there weren’t too many barriers to their access to voting. As someone who has a job dedicated to overcoming voter apathy and increasing awareness about the many barriers that exist to voting, it was nice to engage with students who had the very mindset that I need to understand in order to perform my job correctly. The fact that everyone was so receptive to learning about student voting barriers and the importance of voting left me wondering if everyone would be so receptive to learning about these challenges, and if so, how the information could be better disseminated.

It’s interesting that on a college campus, where everyone seems to be invested in one social cause or another, there is still an alarmingly low rate of students voting. It makes me wonder if the only voices we hear are the loudest ones, and there is a large body of silent, politically uninvested persons. Though it’s understandable to be confused or uninterested in politics, politics will affect you, your family, your friends, and your loved ones regardless of whether you vote or not. Overall, this is my reasoning on why everyone should vote. Hopefully before the 2020 election, we can get more students involved and invested in their representation.

I learned about the voting rights of students at Cornell at the table talk. I was very shocked to find that voting can be very difficult for Cornell students. The reason for this is due to Ithaca having different districts that require each district to vote in a different area. For instance, people who live on North campus do not vote in the same place as the people who live on West campus or in sororities/ fraternities. These people will have to travel miles out of their way, in order to be able to vote. This can be very inconvenient and can turn people away from the whole voting process in general. Additionally, I was given very useful websites that I can utilize to educate myself about the different candidates who are running for office or president. The website was ballotready.org. As someone who feels like she doesn’t have enough knowledge about politics, I will definitely be utilizing this website to further educate myself so that I can make the best decision when it comes time to vote.

I got to hear about the efforts that Cornell makes to make sure that students are able to vote. The most surprising thing that I learned was that Cornell’s campus is districted in such a way that the designated polling station is very far away for north campus and parts of west campus. It would be easier for students to vote if we were all allowed to vote at the nearest polling station, but that’s not what the people with political power in our district want. I’m glad that Cornell at least provides free stamps for absentee voters so that students don’t have to find a way to get to the post office, and that voter registration forms are available on campus, but very few students seem to vote anyway. Hopefully, future Cornell initiatives will be able to make it even easier for Cornell students to vote if they choose to. I’m glad I learned about the resources that are available for us to use.