Campus Voter Initiative

Abstract

Based on information collected from the US Census Bureau, young Americans are the least likely demographic to vote. According to Common Cause, North Carolina, not only were students at ECU less likely to vote, ECU ranked nineteenth in voter turnout of all schools in North Carolina. Because of this, our honors group concluded that this was an issue that needed to be addressed. After the group found that classic get-out-to vote drives often yielded the best results for campaigns, our research group concluded that in order to increase voter participation among ECU’s students, we would use grassroots techniques to spur them to vote. This included as much face-to-face interaction as possible, centered around tabling events, registration drives, and bringing candidates on campus to interact directly with students. In order to achieve this, we founded the Camps Voter Initiative, which is an on-campus organization dedicated to increasing voter participation on ECU campus. Becoming an organization allowed for the group to apply for funds from the SGA as well track attendance through the SAO. To this point, the organization has registered 231 people to vote, distributed 800 pamphlets containing voter information (where to vote and candidate information), as well as held three events, with a total average of 93.3 people attending each event. However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, unforeseen hurdles were created. Thusly, the Campus Voter Initiative, in an effort to make some sort of impact on the 2020 election, partnered with the Association of Mexicans in Eastern North Carolina, and recruited the help of other campus organizations to run a Safe Site at the Willis Building, where we disseminated PPE, water, and voter guides.