Boston University student organizations made concerted efforts to encourage students to vote in last week’s presidential election.
Non-party affiliated organizations included the BU Student Government, the College of Communication Student Government and the Community Service Center, who set up booths and hosted events around campus to educate students on voting.
One of the biggest initiatives on campus was the Terrier Turnout Committee, formed by the StuGov Department of City Affairs and BU Votes. The group recently held their Terrier Turnout Week to encourage students to vote.
COM StuGov, a participating student organization, collected data metrics on a variety of topics including new voter registrations, voter action plans, submitted ballots and engagement, wrote COM Student Body President Natalie Reilly in an email to The Daily Free Press.
“COM Student Government serves as a platform to educate and support students on current affairs through providing resources,” Reilly wrote.
The Community Service Center, another key contributor to Terrier Turnout Week, provided students with the materials needed to register in students’ respective states. One of the resources they used is Turbovote, a non-profit website, collects all the specific requirements of a state to help a student register efficiently and on time for the election.
“Utilizing one’s voice and vote is at the basis of democracy,” said the Director of CSC, Orpheo Speer.
BU College Democrats is another campus group that encouraged students to order and track absentee ballots since the beginning of the school year, according to Voting Tzar Sean Waddington.
“People really do like to just see what’s happening and how they can get involved,” Waddington said.
The club also conducted “targeted efforts” aimed towards pushing people to vote as democrats. This included phone banking initiatives in swing states to encourage residents to send their ballots in, Waddington said. Their last phone bank effort was for Michigan residents on Thursday, Oct. 24.
“The turnout for that event was way bigger than we thought it was going to be, ” said Waddington. “Typically, phone banks are one of the least flashy things that we do, as important as they are.”
BU College Democrats also traveled door to door to spark voter involvement beyond campus. Waddington said the club traveled to New Hampshire and also collaborated with other schools in the Boston area to travel to Maine.
BU College Republicans, another political group on campus, welcomed new voters both conservative and of any other affiliation with the upcoming election.
The club’s primary goal is to debate the current political climate, as they hold weekly discussions to encourage participation in the government, said Amanda Lohnes, BU College Republicans president.
Lohnes said the turnout for meetings has increased from around 15 to now 30 students steadily participating in meetings.
“Most people that I’ve spoken to definitely want to exercise that right to vote, no matter who that candidate is,” Lohnes said.
The BU chapter of the Federalist Society has a mission of holding important political debates to facilitate “robust conversations” regarding law, said president Chris McPherson.
“I think that this is something important for the school,” said McPherson. “In order to have an informed vote, you need to be able to wrestle with these issues and really think them through.”
Freshman Una Colby said voting is a critical part of being an American citizen. She chose to vote by mail.
“We are privileged enough to have a role in our government and have a choice in our government,” Colby said.
Colby said that although she has seen flyers around campus encouraging voting and voter
registration, she has not seen specific student groups advocating for voting.
“I just turned 18 and the election is something we always hear about,” freshman Amulya Mandapaka said. “It’s obviously so important to do your part as a citizen. It was important to definitely do as much as I could, and voting is that outlet for me.”
Freshman Ashley Lau said she did not plan on voting, adding she recently gained American citizenship, so she was not familiar with the voting process.
“I just never really thought about it,” Lau said.
Waddington said that BU typically sees voting engagement on campus across all majors and described BU’s campus as “solidly political.” He emphasized that voting focuses not just on one candidate but on the political landscape overall.
“We’re not just deciding what policies are going forward,” Waddington said. “We’re picking the landscape that we’re going to organize in and that we’re going to fight for.”
