With general elections coming up on Nov. 2, 2021, EMU’s Student Government Association and Young Democrats club worked together to host a voter registration drive for the week leading up to the Oct. 12 deadline for voter registration in Virginia. Students who had never registered or who wanted to switch their registration to the state of
Virginia were able to sign up.
Members of the clubs volunteered not only to sit at the voter registration table but also to become certified to assist the process of students registering to vote. One senior SGA senator, Andrew Nord, explained this process: “You watch a forty-minute video and then fill out a form and sign your name. Then, you can request 200 voter registration forms to have people fill out.” The video and signature form is found on the Virginia Department of Elections website. This process prepares volunteers to handle personal information and provides a non-partisan space for future voters to register.
This process also allowed students to learn new things about where they could register to vote. Because EMU students are residents in Virginia nine months out of the year, no matter what state they are from, they can register to vote as a resident of VA.
“I didn’t realize how easy it was to transfer your registration to a different state,” explained senior SGA Co-President Faith Manickam, “they take care of everything else; you just put down the state where you were previously registered to vote.” For a swing state like Virginia, a vote can hold more sway here than in many other states, providing an incentive to switch registrations.
Although it isn’t a presidential or midterm election, the vote coming up on Nov. 2 will still determine a lot about the direction of state policies. Virginia residents will be voting for the next Virginia Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, Virginia House of Delegates, and a couple of local offices.
While the Oct. 12 deadline to register has already passed, there are a couple more deadlines to pay attention to. If needed, voters must request an absentee ballot by Oct. 22. For students using absentee ballots for other states, it is important to check for this deadline on their own state’s election website. Additionally, early voting is always an option, and this year it takes place at Harrisonburg City Hall from Oct. 23 to Oct. 30.
At a school with a history of apolitical tendencies, it is exciting to see students actively participating in the voter registration process and simultaneously encouraging other students to do the same. As one of the Young Democrats’ volunteers, first-year Ella Brubaker explained, about helping with the drive, “It was a unique experience. It definitely made me more aware.”
Certainly, the drive helped spread awareness on campus that voting is an easy way to take part in deciding upon policies that will affect one’s community.
