NY bill could increase student voter turnout in years to come
This year’s elections may be some of the last before colleges are required to provide polling stations on campus.
The New York state Senate passed legislation June 28 to place centrally located polling sites on campuses in election districts where most of the eligible voters reside on campus. The legislation is not a mandated law yet and will return to the Assembly next year to be voted on.
Lawmakers are hoping it will encourage more young people to be politically active.
‘We hope to see the bill become successful this year and soon be passed by both houses and become a law,’ said Adam Silver, a member of the New York Senate staff and supporter of the bill.
Silver said he hopes to see a large increase in voter turnout in the coming elections as a result of the bill.
‘Voting is one of the few opportunities to have civic engagement in politics that will affect us all directly or individually,’ Silver said.
Silver said he did not yet have the number of colleges that would be mandated to participate, but he believes many schools will make need to take part.
At Syracuse University, there is already a polling station established in E.S. Bird Library. Some students said they were unaware of this polling station and the new legislation.
But other students agreed the legislation will be effective in increasing voter turnout.
‘I am under 18, but I see this being very useful in the following election years I’ll be eligible for on campus,’ said Hannah McDonald, a freshman broadcast journalism major.
Some students, like Briana Lemon, a junior mechanical engineering major, said they would vote in the state, regardless of a future expansion for on-campus polling stations.
Some experts said they are weary the bill will increase student voter turnout. No matter how close the polling sites are to campus, students still need to be registered and informed, said Kristi Andersen, political science professor.
‘Many will continue to prefer to vote absentee,’ Anderson said. ‘I suspect that students most likely to register in Syracuse are those who live off campus, and those people probably have cars and/or live near polling places.’
Meanwhile, SU’s Office of Government and Community Relations is working to increase voter turnout by getting students registered by inserting a voting guide in each student handbook. It will also send out voter registration forms to students and e-mails to the residence halls and off-campus listservs, said Kate Hammer, the community relations associate at Government and Community Relations.
Published on September 13, 2010 at 12:00 pm
