UA Vote Everywhere tabled around campus to help students register to vote on Tuesday, which was National Voter Registration Day.
There were three booths on campus, located at the Quad, Shelby Hall and the Student Center. Each offered news on important deadlines, information about absentee ballot voting for the campus’ many out-of-state students, and websites students could visit to register to vote.
Vote Everywhere is an initiative started by the Andrew Goodman Foundation to help get college students to vote.
Daniel Lynn, a junior chemistry major and UA ambassador for the AGF and Vote Everywhere, said the foundation — a nonpartisan nonprofit — honors Andrew Goodman and two other civil rights workers who were killed by Ku Klux Klan members in 1964 while they were registering Black voters in Mississippi.
“I think [voting is] really important because it’s our way of telling our government how we feel, if we’re content with how things are going, or if we think that there needs to be change,” Lynn said. “I know a lot of young people feel that the people representing us don’t understand our issues, and I think that whenever more young people come out to vote, it’s a way to make our voices heard, and the politicians actually listen to what we’re trying to say.”
Young Americans tend to participate in elections less than older age groups and are the least represented in Congress, said Bree Patzke, a senior political science major and member of Vote Everywhere.
“It’s really important for us to gain some voice in the decisions that are being made in order to inform policy that aligns with our interests,” Patzke said.
Vote Everywhere member Liam Tucker, a senior computer science major, said that local elections and smaller races can be decided by a few hundred votes or less.
“Local elections, frequently, are some of the more direct impacts on the way that people’s lives are shaped,” Tucker said. “Local elections have lower turnout, so your voice is particularly important, and your vote is particularly important there.”
The 2021 municipal elections in Tuscaloosa saw a voter turnout of 20%. By contrast, 60.3% of registered voters in Tuscaloosa County cast ballots in the general election in November 2020.
Lars Griffin, a senior finance major, stopped by a Vote Everywhere booth on the Quad to get help in registering to vote. Griffin plans to vote in this upcoming election, and he is now successfully registered.
“People died for my right to vote, so the least I can do is participate,” Griffin said.
These initiatives come as the presidential and local election deadlines are getting closer. The deadline to be registered to vote in Alabama is Oct. 21, and the last day to apply for an absentee ballot is Oct. 29 by mail or Oct. 31 in person. The last day to hand-deliver an absentee ballot is Oct. 31
Anyone who missed UA Vote Everywhere’s booth but still wishes to register can visit vote.ua.edu.
