Photo courtesy of Camels Vote.
In light of the upcoming Presidential Election, Camels Vote, a nonpartisan voting and civic engagement initiative emerged during this Summer to promote student voter participation throughout the campus community. The initiative was established in 2018 through the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, an advocacy group which strives to institutionalize voter and civic engagement on college campuses. NESCAC Votes was later created out of the ALL IN Campus Challenge, as a way of garnering voter interest from students and establishing a competitive dialogue among the NESCAC schools.
In the 2018 midterm elections, the college’s student voter rate was 40.5%, Camels Vote, supervised by Angela Barney, Assistant Director of the Holleran Center and Camels Vote ambassadors, Jozette Moses ‘21 and Julia O’Connell ‘21, have set a goal of increasing the voter rate by 20-29% during the upcoming election.
I spoke with Moses and O’Connell, who began this summer as voter engagement and education interns and are still working hard to educate students on the most effective ways to vote at the polls or through mail-in and absentee ballots. “I think the pandemic has made it harder to access that [voting] information, but I think it’s also changed the ways through which we access the information, which is starting to benefit young voters”, said Moses. She discussed the accessibility of online platforms, particularly their recent Instagram account (@camelsvote) and website. Their Instagram account, which posts weekly, is filled with information about upcoming state voting deadlines, general voter information, and discusses voting history and disenfranchisement. Through both platforms, they hope to remedy the widespread confusion around voting on Conn campus. “One of the biggest [barriers] we’ve seen, not only through from the research we’ve done over the summer, but through our direct messages on Instagram, is that a lot of young people just don’t have correct, accurate information or they just lack information about voting in general”, said O’Connell.
On the week of Sept. 21, Camels Vote hosted National Voter Registration week, a holiday celebrated with a goal to register as many new voters and spread information on the importance of voting. This year, Camels Vote had programming every day of the week, from Kahoot games to speaker discussions with voting advocates. Each of their events focused on getting students’ questions answered and were followed by drop-in hours with Camels Vote student volunteers, where personal inquiries about voting could be addressed directly. Amidst the pandemic, volunteers stressed the importance of voting by mail-in ballots if you’re at home, and absentee ballots if you’re away from home. Beneficial advice as COVID cases have increased in New London from 5 to 154 since students arrived in late August.
When asked what specific words they would like to share with the Conn community about the importance of voting, Moses acknowledged the privilege she had as an ambassador, and largely a student at a higher education institution. “When we’re learning about this information, as a young person, who has the opportunity to be at a private college where you can get those resources easily, it’s important to pass that information down to family and friends.” O’Connell discussed the relevance of representation saying, “I think trying to educate yourself and inform yourself on specific dates and what it means to vote in general doesn’t necessarily change the structure of our society right away, but it can help on a smaller scale. I think that’s something to remember because a lot of young people are definitely disappointed and also feel like there are not a lot of people who are in politics who represent them. So, just remember that voting can help a lot in certain ways, even if it’s locally.”
Camels Vote is making a lot of progress to help Conn students learn about the voting process. The ambassadors foresee another campus-wide event within the coming weeks and have been asked to speak at Conn Votes, a panel discussion of students, staff, faculty, alumni, and trustees, speaking on the importance of voter engagement within the upcoming elections. The event will take place on Oct. 15 at 6pm. So, DM the Camels Vote Instagram (@camelsvote) for any voting questions! •
