Almost 13,000 UA students — or 98% of Tuesday’s voters — voted in favor of making federal election days a campus holiday. 

The referendum on the homecoming ballot passed according to preliminary results released by the Student Government Association on Tuesday. 

College of Arts and Sciences Senator John Dodd, who proposed the resolution in August with hopes of increasing voting accessibility for students, said he is “ecstatic” and surprised by the number of students who voted. Dodd hopes to use these results in future conversation with University officials to lobby for the holiday. 

“We want to remove all obstacles between the people of our community and the ballot box,” he said. “I think we’re almost there with the statistics we have tonight.” 

SGA Press Secretary Olivia Davis said the referendum will promote civic engagement among students. 

“The SGA supports any initiative aimed at increasing civic engagement among students — whether at the campus, local, state or federal level,” she said. “As part of our mission to train ourselves in democratic government and promote civic engagement, we are proud to welcome any opportunity for students to express their opinions on issues that are of importance to our campus community.”

Dodd said this is a step in the right direction for increasing civic engagement among students.

“A lot of students do not have the ability to send in a mail ballot or absentee ballot or vote early, so they’re left with a choice to either [go to] class or go fulfill their civic duty,” he said. “As much as someone would love to go, you can’t just skip class and make a zero in your work because then youre hurting yourself in the end. That’s the obstacle that we’re trying to break now.”