Supporting Voter Participation in the ENACT Network
ENACT has been supporting nonpartisan voter registration and voter participation efforts at five campuses through the ENACT Your Vote initiative: Brandeis (in collaboration with VoteDeis), Siena College (New York), University of Hartford (Connecticut), University of Maine, and Utah State University.
At each campus ENACT provided access to our online tools for making and following a voting plan, and ENACT Your Vote Campus Engagement Student Fellows worked with our ENACT Faculty Fellows to support voting and civic engagement.
Across various campuses, the ENACT Your Vote initiative made a difference in promoting nonpartisan voter registration and encouraging students to become more engaged. The support and tools provided by ENACT volunteers helped make civic engagement more accessible and meaningful to current college students.
At Brandeis University, the VoteDeis Campus Coalition and ENACT Your Vote team, with leadership from ENACT Assistant Director David Weinstein, made strides in increasing student engagement and voter turnout on campus. Over the course of the fall semester, Brandeis students tabled at various events—from art tours to library information sessions—offering support and guidance to those trying to make a voting plan. They planned events with various student organizations and even organized a “VoteGoat” to come to campus.
At Siena College the ENACT Your Vote team, with leadership by ENACT Faculty Fellow Prof. Dan Lewis had a significant impact. Siena College students tabled at first year orientation and other events, recruited more than two dozen volunteers, collaborated with the student life department to host vote-themed pizza parties in the dorms, canvassed student housing, provided stamps and envelopes to help students request absentee ballots, and created Saints Vote t-shirts (pictured above) and stickers for prizes and giveaways.
ENACT Your Vote students at the University of Hartford held weekly tabling sessions in the student center to share information about registering to vote. In partnership with the Rell Center they printed t-shirts and gave them for free to students who registered for the ENACT Your Vote platform.
They also collaborated on three events: a presidential debate watch event (pictured), a vice-presidential Debate watch party, and an election results watching event on November 5th. All were sponsored in partnership with the University of Hartford's Office of Inclusive Excellence and Belonging, Department of Politics, Economics and International Studies, and the Office of Student Engagement and Inclusion.
"What was exciting for me was seeing students so motivated to engage politically," said Prof. Katharine Owens, ENACT Faculty Fellow and leader of the University of Hartford ENACT Your Vote team. "Our students are not always tuned into political events or elections, but they were really engaged this time. I think Motivote/ENACT Your Vote helped them navigate the process."
See local TV news coverage of the University of Hartford's presidential debate watch party, including interviews with Prof. Owens, from WTNH Channel 8, WFSB Channel 3, and NBC Connecticut.