As the 2024 presidential election quickly approaches, students at Winona State University are faced with two questions. The first might seem easier to answer: Who will I vote for? The second is perhaps a bit trickier: How will I vote?
A huge portion of students on campus have never voted in a presidential election before. While some have already figured out how to register, request an absentee ballet if needed, or figure out a polling location, many students are unsure exactly how the voting process works. The misconception that one individual vote won’t make a difference amongst a whole country of other votes often prevents students from exercising their civic responsibility.
Campus vote coordinator Dr. Adam Gaffey co-leads the American Democracy Project with Dr. Elissa Alzate. The ADP is a team of faculty members dedicated to increasing voter engagement on campus. They work in tandem with the student-led organization called Warriors Vote. Gaffey comments that not every election year looks the same on campus.
“There are a lot of factors that might determine how engaged students are in any given election…the timing, the candidates, issues that people care about that might be kind of open for debate,” Gaffey said. “But student engagement has been, I think, very strong in 2024.”
First-year student Molly Abler has a plan to vote but believes that the difficulty with voting in college comes from social pressure.
“In general people…can get very influenced by their friends or people in their life. And I think everybody needs to do research before they vote…that’s kind of overlooked as a college student.” Abler said.
Not only is it important that students are educated on the issues at hand, but, as Gaffey said, it is also important that they don’t stop at just casting their vote.
“Remember that voting is the baseline… I think voting is a great thing. It is a form of civic power that not everybody in the world enjoys. It’s easy to take it for granted, but it’s also the floor. Where you go from voting should be, I think, any kind of civic engagement… and that could include becoming more involved in your community or learning about issues during and after an election.” Gaffey said.
Voting is a great way to ensure that each voice is represented fairly in American democracy. But what better way to promote change than to incite it yourself? Change begins with each and every one of us and is certainly not limited to casting a vote.
The most important thing to note is that if a student who is registered to vote in the state of Minnesota, they are eligible to vote in the polling location that will be in the Kryzsko Commons on election day—November 5, 2024.
If a student is registered to vote in a different state, or if a voter is from Minnesota and would prefer to cast a vote with a ballot from their place of residence, make sure to request an absentee ballot.
Right, left, or anywhere in between—each vote matters! Exercise civic responsibility and make a plan to cast a vote in the 2024 presidential election.
