By Leslie Moonshine, AADC Registration Team at Sierra College
The Voter Registration teams are going full throttle with their weekly visits to campus on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Since the start of fall semester in late August, we have registered 154 new voters! While the majority of students still choose No Party Preference, we know from our discussions that the majority lean Democratic in their values!
Our engagement with young voters goes far beyond just registering them to vote. Our signature surveys allow us to draw students into meaningful conversations on newsworthy topics. We help guide students to reliable sources for information on all political matters — especially when they tell us they get all their news from TikTok! We supply information about down ballot races and provide campaign literature and swag, such as buttons and stickers. Most importantly, we encourage them to be participants in our democracy and VOTE! (And did we mention snacks? So important!)
Recent surveys have, of course, centered on voting and elections. One focused on how the president is elected, first asking a question and then following up with information.
In the United States does the presidential candidate getting the most votes become the President? | YES 12 | NO 84 |
Fact: In 2000, Bush had 537,179 fewer votes than Al Gore but won the Electoral College and became President. In 2016 Trump had 2,868,686 fewer votes than Hilary Clinton but won the Electoral College and became the President. | ||
Do you know how the Electoral College works? | Yes 47 | No 53 |
Explanation of Electoral College provided, including basic information such as: The Electoral College has 538 electors. A majority of 270 electoral votes is required to elect the President. (and more)! | ||
Do you feel that your vote carries equal weight in the electoral college system? | Yes 11 | No 80 |
An elector in Wyoming represents around 150,000 voters, whereas a California elector represents the votes of some 500,000 residents. That makes their votes over 3 times more powerful than ours. | ||
Do you believe the electoral college system is fair to all states? | Yes 14 | No 84 |
An explanation of how the Electoral College was a compromise that the founding fathers made between Northern Industrial States and Southern Agricultural States was provided. |
Another survey focused on “Rules for Losing Candidates.” When asked if a presidential candidate should peacefully transfer power upon losing the election, all 70 respondents said “YES.” When asked if the means by which a candidate can contest results in court is a fair system, 62 responded YES and 2 said NO. Surprisingly, when asked if a Presidential candidate should be allowed to contact state officials to ask them to find more votes, 20 students responded YES, while 43 responded NO. The majority (60) said that a candidate who lost the election and had exhausted all legal remedies should NOT continue to claim that they won.
Two different surveys asked about students’ voting plans. On Tuesday, October 8, students were asked how they planned to vote. Mail-in ballots were most popular (31), while 11 students planned to use a drop box, and 19 planned to vote in person at a vote center. A final category: “I’m not voting” had 0 responses, which made the team very happy! A similar survey on Wednesday, October 23, included the following responses: I already voted (8); I plan to mail in my ballot (10); I will use a drop box (12); I plan to vote in person at a voting center (15). We also asked whether students knew about the drop box on campus (18 did) and whether they were aware that a Voting Center would be open on campus from November 2 to November 5 (11 did). Other questions revealed that 10 students were aware that the Placer County Voting Centers are open from October 26 through November 5 for early voting, and only a handful of students (5) knew what to do if they made a mistake on their ballot. But some responses revealed that we have made inroads in voter education! Fifteen students knew where to get information about propositions on the ballot and fifteen knew that they don’t have to vote on everything! Only 4 students signed up with Ballot Tracker, but many were interested in this service offered by the Placer County Office of Elections. And, 19 students put a sticker on that said “I am excited about being a voter!” Proof positive that our presence on campus is paying off!
The last week of October will see both Tuesday and Wednesday teams engaging in a bit of Halloween fun (while still focusing on GOTV). Students still needing to register now have to go to a Voting Center to do “same day” registration in order to vote on November 5, but we are still pre-registering those who are not yet age 18. Both teams will be on campus on Election Day to answer questions and encourage students to head to the Voting Center! (The Wednesday team then will not be on campus after the election, on November 6.)
Sierra College has a history of civic engagement. Students take pride in exercising their right to vote and we are honored to be part of their GOTV effort. Thank you to all the volunteers who have been showing up to help the Voter Registration teams each week.