Voting is perhaps our greatest civic duty now more than ever. This election will decide how we address the pandemic moving forward, how we respond to threats of climate change, and how much racial injustice is prioritized.
To keep our representative democracy intact, or at least decent, we must encourage exercising our rights to vote as much as possible. For many first-time voters this encouragement should come from their colleges or university.
Young voters hold half of the voting age population, and those votes combined could be a powerful force. Yet, college-aged voters have poor voter turnout compared to the rest of the population despite arguably being impacted most by the results of elections.
Major political decisions like student debt forgiveness and healthcare accessibility will follow young voters in their financial careers possibly forever. It is imperative for students to inspire and grow support for like-minded candidates to protect our financial and personal futures.
The University has a variety of on-campus and online resources for voting education, registration, and improving voter turn-out, however, these resources are not put to good use unless students and employees actually have the opportunity to go vote.
As a student, I have an unpredictable schedule balancing a full load of classes and fulfilling work obligations. Online school this semester has given me enough flexibility that I had the opportunity to vote, without it being a real issue. Though, many students were not as fortunate as I was, and still had on-campus and online responsibilities to prioritize over voting.
Fortunately, some professors have taken it upon themselves to make sure students have ample opportunity to exercise their voting rights by postponing due dates, or posting recorded lectures.
Though, when campus returns back to normal possibly by next election, students will return to going to multiple campus locations a day and will likely find it difficult to find a time to vote. Voting lines can be long, and in some locations, it might even take a couple hours.
The easiest way to relieve some responsibility on students and faculty on election days in the future is to cancel classes, have asynchronous learning options, or at the very least have flexible attendance policies. That way students and facility are more likely to have to time to make it to the polls, and possibly even make better informed decisions when given the extra time.
If the University of Wyoming teaches you anything, it should be how to be an active participant in our community and show up for our civil responsibilities. Students should not have to choose between voting and going to class.
