Olivia Volkman-Johnson / Winonan

As the 2016 presidential election quickly approaches, Winona State University is taking steps to become the university in Minnesota with the most registered voters.

This is the first year of the Minnesota College Ballot Bowl, a competition between 68 Minnesota colleges and universities to register the most voters before the last day for pre-registration on Tuesday, Oct. 18.

Minnesota’s Secretary of State, Steve Simon, created the Ballot Bowl in an effort to increase voter turnout in the state of Minnesota.

“Ballot Bowl is a concept that we’re really excited about,” Simon said. “We have tremendous participation.”

According to Simon, the Ballot Bowl is a concept that was effective in other states and was brought to Minnesota to increase voter turnout, specifically among college-aged individuals.

The Post Bulletin claims Minnesota had been the leading state in the U.S. for voter turnout for nine elections in a row. However, Minnesota dropped to sixth place in 2014, and the demographic with the least amount of voters was youth voters, ages 18 to 24.

“In the last presidential election year, the youth voting rate was a little bit over 50 percent compared to somewhere in the mid to high 70s for the rest of the [voters],” Simon said.

Since 2014, Simon and his office have been working hard to make the voting process easier through online voter registration, “no-excuses” absentee ballots and by doubling the number of foreign languages on voter registration applications.

Simon has also attempted to increase interest in voting among youth voters by introducing the Ballot Bowl and traveling across all 87 Minnesota counties to raise awareness of the importance of voting.

“All roads lead to the ballot box, and no matter what issue you care about the most—whether it’s student loan debt, education, transportation, civil rights, environmental protection, jobs—if you care about those issues, you’re not going to get the outcome you want unless you get people in office that are going to share your views and values,” Simon said.

Simon has also found many college-aged voters are hesitant to vote for a variety of reasons, including a lack of understanding of the process, disapproval with politicians and difficulty getting to poll locations.

Alison Bettin, an intern with the American Democracy Project, has attempted to dispel the doubts of Winona State students by assisting with Popcorn and Politics discussions and voter registration tables around campus.

“It’s often a process that can disenfranchise college students because it gets confusing and then we don’t get their vote,” Bettin said.

According to Bettin, the project has registered roughly 1,300 Winona State students, faculty members and personnel since the first day of classes.

As the final day of registering approached, Bettin said ADP, along with Students United, continued to have registration tables around campus to encourage people to register.

Though many college-aged voters are refraining from voting as an act of protest, both Simon and Bettin stress the importance of voting in this year’s controversial election.

“I think that everyone should vote. It is our policy that we don’t care who you vote for, we just want people to be part of the system,” Bettin said.

“In a historic election like this, and when registration and voting have never been easier, I really hope that people will take advantage of using their vote as their voice,” Simon added. “I just encourage people to stand up, show up and be a voter.”

-By Olivia Volkman-Johnson