National Voter Registration Day swept through campus this September 17, and Dickinson Votes, the Presidential Office, the CCLA and WDCV all stepped into action.
Britton Plaza once again hosted a voting registration event during common hour for Dickinson students in hopes of helping them join those who vote for the upcoming presidential and local elections.
The day was filled with music, refreshments, new voters, staff members and students ready to walk students through the voting registration form step by step.
“It was very inviting– good music, snacks and a lot of people willing to help. It was super quick and easy to do and everything I needed was provided,” said Simone Giannosa ’28, a new registered voter. She confirmed that the event helped her realize how easy it was to sign up to vote and how she now feels more encouraged to cast her vote in the November election.
The event, overall, had a successful turnout with over one hundred voter registration forms filled out and more on the way.
This large turnout is expected by the College, as Dickinson has a triumphant history in voting with it being rewarded “Highest Voter Turnout” and “Highest Voter Registration” as part of the Pennsylvania Campus Voting Challenge in past years. Dickinson has also been ranked No. 5 in the country on the Student Voting Honor Roll.
To ensure such success, if students missed the event, they can still turn in their registration forms to Professor Love in Denny 215 up until October 21.
Voting registration is aimed at helping students get into the habit of voting young, hoping it will form into a lifelong habit all while making it as fun as possible.
After talking with Erin Zacks ’25, a Dickinson student voting coordinator, she confirmed how important students getting involved in voting is. She said that it builds “a lifelong commitment to civic engagement.” Aside from the Presidential election, she stressed how important it is to vote in local elections. Dickinson students often forget that Carlisle issues and elections affect them as they call Carlisle home for nine months out of the year.
Zacks went on to acknowledge that Dickinson Votes is always looking for new volunteers, collaborations with other clubs, and more inclusion of different groups of students such as STEM students and athletes. These students are shown to have the most underrepresented voices inside of the student body in terms of elections and voting.
With the club’s collaboration, the President’s Office has continued to show their non-partisan support for college voting. They have remained large funders of Dickinson Votes and are dedicated each year to helping put on this event. President Jones expressed his support at the Voting Registration event by giving a speech to both the Carlisle and Dickinson community confirming the importance of everyone participating in elections.
The next major event to be hosted by Dickinson Votes before the November election, and will take place on Britton Plaza in October.
After the November election, the club’s focus will shift to the Spring elections in this ongoing cycle. They will also focus on filing out campus voting achievements so Dickinson will be on the way to hopefully win more awards in Voting Participation and Registration.
If you’re interested in voting in the upcoming November election, please do so at the Bosler Memorial Library here in Carlisle. Keep a lookout for the signs and arrows pointing the way on November 5.
