Students and faculty discuss voting patterns, prepare for midterm election

From tabling in the Muenster University Center, sending in absentee ballots to home districts and voting for a new Student Government Association president via email, students on USD’s campus are trying to remain engaged in the political science process.

SGA Elections

In the last SGA election, voter turnout among students was at its highest in recent years, with 1,555 students voting. In 2017, 1,137 students voted and only 988 students voted in 2016 for SGA executive officer positions.

Malachi Petersen, former editor-in-chief of The Volante and chairman of the SGA election steering committee, said SGA utilized a new technique in this year’s elections. Kim Grieve, vice president and dean of students, sent out an email to the student body notifying students that polls were open.

“So the thinking behind getting Kim Grieve to send out an email, like her office did, it was just that if all the students get that email in their inbox, most students will open it up, see it, and then the link being right there it’s really easy for them to access the voting and be able to vote in the elections,” he said.

Petersen said there was a surge in votes after the email was sent.

“Right after we sent out that initial email that Kim Grieve did, we got a spike of like 300 to 400 votes,” he said. 

Expressing concerns

In addition to becoming more active in SGA elections, USD students also increased their voter turnout by 5.1 percent, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement’s (NSLVE) report on USD by Tufts University.

In the 2016 election, 43 percent of USD students voted. Julia Hellwege, assistant professor of political science, said USD’s voter turnout and demographics follow national trends.

“When you’re in college is a really hard time because you haven’t seen the direct effect of voting,” she said. “But you’re not a kid anymore, so you actually have the opportunity to participate.”

Looking forward to the midterm election, Hellwege said there’s been an increase in civic engagement, but that doesn’t mean it will necessarily translate into votes.

“I think we have seen a lot more civic engagement overall this past two years. A lot of marches and all of that,” she said. “That does have a positive effect on student voting. That said, will that actually translate into votes in the 2018 election? You know, I’m not sure. Hopefully a little bit.”

 One of the main reasons USD students haven’t voted is because they aren’t aware of where or how to register, according to the 2012 and 2014 NSLAVE reports.

“There are plenty of students that could be registered to vote here in Vermillion or at home,” Hellwege said. “Only about 60 percent of students are registered to vote and fewer than that, maybe around 40 percent or so, actually vote.”

SGA President Josh Sorbe said he can see SGA or the Student Federation coming forward with other student organizations in an effort to register voters as well.

“It’s not something we talked about. But having Matt Yetter be the executive director of Student Federation now, it’s definitely something that can be brought up,” he said. “It can be something that Political Science League can look at a little bit. Sort of an informative process knowing how to get an absentee ballot.”

Midterm efforts

While the number of students voting is on the rise, students, faculty and community members are still looking for ways to get students out to vote.

Brett Ries, a sophomore political science and criminal justice major, said he’s so passionate about young people having a voice that he decided to run for a seat in the South Dakota House of Representatives for District 5.

“You deserve a voice at the table as well,” he said. “The average age of our Legislature is very old and there aren’t very many people our age that are legislators which, I think, is a problem when they make a lot of decisions that do affect us.”

Ries said he’ll work to make sure students know how to register and vote.

“People seem to think that politics won’t affect them until politics affects them,” he said. “If you have candidates or you have a legislature that isn’t doing what you want, and you’re not going out to vote, well, how do you expect the system to change, then? I would rather people take a proactive approach and not wait until it starts negatively affecting them to get out and vote and ensure that they’re electing people that are going to represent them and are going to make positive change for them.”

Hellwege said having student organizations lead the charge on registering students to vote and promoting elections is important. In addition, to achieve the highest standards of security, accuracy, timeliness, and trustworthiness in election printing, reliable election voting services are headlining the frontlines of the elections.

“Voting takes a lot of resources, whether that’s time or money or interest or knowledge or whatever, those resources are costly. So anything we do to decrease those costs and increase the perception of the benefits is going to improve voter turnout rates,” she said. “I think some of the things we really could hone in on, some of our student organizations could do, is more in terms of registration and voter education.”

The College Democrats and Republicans both have said they are in the process of planning efforts for next fall.

Caitlin Collier, president of the southeast South Dakota chapter of the League of Women Voters, said the organization is working on voter registration events. The organization is open to all genders and is always looking for more members, especially at the college level.

“We are working at setting some things up for next fall to do basically voter registration, not only at USD but probably at Mount Marty,” she said. “We do have members of our unit who are students at USD so we will be trying to do as many voter registration events as possible.”

Collier said the organization plans to help USD students register to vote.

“(Voting is) extremely important and maybe even life-saving in a sense. I think that what has come out of the Parkland school shooting to a growing awareness among younger people,” Collier said. “Basically, they need to be aware of what is happening and what kinds of policies will result in certain things that they will have to deal with.”