College Students Struggle to Find the Time to Vote

 

By Emily Gaudette

    Some college students who commute to school are finding it more difficult to vote in the upcoming midterm election on November 8.

    “I barely have a second to breathe with the stress of school,” said Gabriella DeGrazia, a graduate student at Merrimack College.

    According to the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, states that do not conduct all-mail elections often have more steps to complete before a person can obtain a mail-in or absentee ballot.

    Those who miss ballot deadlines or do not have time to complete these required steps must vote in-person if they want to vote. Stonehill student Andrew Parker personally doesn’t have difficulty voting by mail as a Massachusetts resident, but sees how a commuter may struggle to get to the polls.

    “For college students voting in-person, they have to take into account travel, and more importantly, availability due to classes,” Parker said.

    Students who either live on campus or attend school online recalled finding the time to vote fairly easy in Massachusetts.

    “It’s not difficult at all for me as a college student in the upcoming election. Mail-in voting that became more popular during the height of the pandemic has made voting much easier for me, especially because I attend a school out-of-state,” Sacred Heart student Jill Amari said.

    Olivia St. Laurent is an online graduate student at Fitchburg State. She completes her work from her home in Methuen, Massachusetts.

    “If I choose to vote, I will vote in person. For me, it’s not difficult at all to vote,” St. Laurent said.

    According to a CIRCLE report, 28 percent of youth voters said they used absentee ballots in 2020 because it was more convenient. It gave them more flexibility when faced with barriers like COVID-19, transportation, school, and work.

    The town moderator of Salem, New Hampshire, Chris Goodnow, said Salem election officials try to encourage youth participation. Neither the town moderator nor the town clerk have data on the youth vote in Salem.

    “If an absentee voter does not get on it, they aren’t going to get their vote in on time,” said Goodnow.

    An alternative reason as to why college students do not vote is not having enough time to research information about the election. Youth voters may choose to abstain from voting if they do not know who or what they are voting for. They also may not know how to vote by mail.

    According to a CIRCLE report about youth vote progress, 20 percent of young, registered voters said they did not vote in the 2020 election because of a lack of information about the process.

    DeGrazia said she did not “have enough information to make a conscious decision,” and that she wouldn’t feel “confident that [she] would make an informed decision.”

    Parker had the same feelings.

    “Classes are affecting my ability to do consistent research,” he said.

    The Salem town clerk, Susan Wall, said that she doesn’t advertise information on upcoming elections because she claims it’s already public knowledge. She posts about the candidates and ballot questions on the Salem Facebook page but defers all other questions about the election towards the Town of Salem website or towards the inquiry page where voters can seek information themselves.