UMW Votes encourage civic engagement on Election Day

by ALANAH MULLER

Staff Writer

This year, during arguably the most contentious presidential election in recent memory, UMW Votes worked to engage students as they take part in their civic duty. UMW Votes is a nonpartisan student-led organization on campus that provides free trolley rides to the polls and other incentives like donuts, pizza, t-shirts and stickers to students registering and turning out to vote.  

“I love being a part of UMW Votes because it is a wonderful group of amazing people all working for the common goal of getting our peers out to vote,” said Sarah Tyree-Hermann, a sophomore political science and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies double major. “I truly love that we are nonpartisan and that our mission is not one that is divisive, but instead is inclusive and works to bring people together through the common pride of being a voter, especially a youth voter.” 

This is junior political science and philosophy double major Tonia Attie’s third year working with UMW Votes and she is excited about student turnout for the 2024 general election.

“Students have been showing up and it’s incredible to see,” she said. “We are the leaders of tomorrow and we deserve to have a say in what our future looks like. No matter who you vote for, your voice matters.” 

UMW Votes has been hosting various events this fall semester to help students get registered and prepared for election day on Nov. 5. These events are held to make registering and voting a less complicated process for students who may be participating in their first election.

“I am feeling optimistic actually, the voter turnout is looking good,” said Jasmine Rivas, a senior psychology major and UMW Votes volunteer. 

UMW’s Working on Democracy first-year seminars also put together events for election day.

“The hard work that was put into planning the day this year seriously paid off, especially with the FSEM,” said Chiara Baez, a junior historic preservation and political science double major. “The students are all really passionate about civic engagement and Election Day, regardless of if they came into class with an interest or not.” 

The FSEM class helped plan events such as the watch party on election night, as well as the lawn games and the pep band.

“Their planning of the watch party was super helpful,” said Baez. “So many people, staff and students, loved the lawn games and especially the pep band. All of that planning effort is credited to the FSEM, including their innovative merch.” 

Other groups out for Election Day include the UMW chapter of the NAACP, the UMW Latino Student Association, the UMW Student Government Association and NextGen, a youth voting organization. Civic engagement is one pillar of life at Mary Washington, with UMW Votes recently winning the gold status from the All in Campus Democracy Challenge. According to UMW Voice, this was due to its 79% student turnout in the 2020 presidential election and 43% turnout in the 2022 midterm elections.

“Today was super successful, we’re at 288 students who voted today with UMWvotes on the trolley with an hour left at the polls,” Baez said. 

UMW’s civic engagement is a point of pride for many students.

“UMW is known for being highly civically engaged, and we’re keeping that up,” said Attie. “In 2022, we had the highest voter turnout of a four-year institution. To see that we’re setting an example for universities across the state, and the nation for that matter, shows that what we do as an institution is effective. UMW students get out the vote, and that’s a fact. It’s a part of our campus culture.”

Tyree-Hermann was looking forward to voting in her first presidential election because of the nationwide affect the decisions can have.

“While it is exciting to vote for local and state offices, there is a different type of pride that I felt when getting to vote for an office that has an effect on the entire country,” said Tyree-Hermann. 

Some people chose to be deeply involved in the campus activities, and some chose to withdraw a bit from the activities of the day. However, UMW Votes and other on-campus organizations were pleased with the rate of voter turnout during the day’s event.

“Election day as a whole was a complete success. Nearly 300 students came by the Bell Tower and used the trolley to go to the polls and vote, which is around double our numbers from last year’s election,” said Tyree-Hermann. “Students were so excited to get out and make their voices heard; we even had a good amount of students who came to do same-day registration, which often means people have changed their minds about voting.”