Election season is upon the College of William and Mary, and efforts to increase voter engagement among the College and larger Williamsburg community are on the rise.
These efforts come from a variety of on-campus organizations, including Young Democrats, the Voter Engagement Committee, and College Republicans.
Young Democrats, the College’s branch of the Democratic Party, is heavily engaged in this issue.
“We are tabling every Tuesday at Sadler, registering students to vote,” Young Democrats Vice President Sam Houghton ’25 said. “We are promoting voter engagement and voter registration, specifically, at every meeting we have. Every event, regardless of what it’s about, we have the necessary forms, and we’re ready to register people.”
The organization also has ambitious future plans to continue their advocacy efforts.
“We actually were recently reached out to by the Africana Studies Department as well, and we plan to reach out to more departments throughout the university to go into classes and give a lecture on voter registration,” Young Democrats President Brenna Gelormine ’25 said.
The College Republicans have a similar mindset when it comes to enthusiastically encouraging students to vote, and they have plans to partner with their Democratic counterpart during tabling efforts.
Along with tabling to register students to vote, they are working with the Trump/Vance presidential campaign and intend on going door to door around the area. They put an emphasis on voting responsibly.
Aside from the General Election, local elections are of the utmost importance and hold a special weight for the College Republicans.
“There’s been this unhealthy trend in American society when we focus more and more and more on just the top of the government. But that’s not really where a lot of the change and the effect of government happens. We want people who, number one, are responsible to their local constituents. It’s a lot harder to hold your president accountable than your congressman or your state senator responsible. So you have a lot more personal influence,” College Republicans Vice President Philip Vayntrub ’27 said.
For those who may believe that their singular vote does not matter, Vayntrub counters that argument by explaining that if votes did not matter, politicians wouldn’t funnel millions of dollars into campaign efforts to win the favor of their constituents.
“Clearly they care about you and it means you have a lot more effect than you may think. The 2020 election was settled by around 10,000 votes and in three big swing states. So clearly, 10,000 is not a very big number. I mean, you have a lot more agency than you may think in your politics and just as a human being,” he said.
Vayntrub believes that the Democrats and Republicans on campus working together is a big positive step towards forging a future where voters can listen to each other through healthy debate.
“We really need to promote civic decency and engagement. That’s what our country should really be all about. It shouldn’t be a civil war; it should be a civil discourse,” he said.
Though Young Democrats and College Republicans are partisan organizations, they emphasize their commitment to encouraging voter engagement, regardless of political orientation.
“It’s really important that we emphasize just the nonpartisan aspect of voter registration. We are obviously a partisan organization, but when we’re talking to people about registration, it’s just pure facts, pure information. ‘Here’s how to do it,’ ‘Here’s when to do it,’” Houghton said.
College Republicans holds a similar view.
“So it’s not like we care about necessarily voting for our party, but we want people to vote with intelligence and with responsibility. And we believe that if you do that, of course, you’ll agree with us, but we really just promote a healthy, engaged citizenship,” Vayntrub said.
The William and Mary Voter Engagement Committee is another group working to increase turnout. Rich Thompson, associate director of the Office of Community Engagement and member of the Voter Engagement Committee, spoke about the efforts of the committee.
“Since the semester kicked off with New Student Orientation, we have already offered six combination Voter Information and Voter Registration Sessions run by representatives from the City of Williamsburg Registrar’s Office and or the League of Women Voters of Williamsburg. Additionally, between now and Election Day on Nov. 5 we will be offering at least 10 more Voter Information and Voter Registration Sessions on campus,” Thompson said.
Thompson emphasized his faith in students to use their voices at the polls.
“William and Mary is the Alma Mater of the nation for many reasons, but one guiding principle is that William and Mary excels at developing inspirational leaders and role models,” Thompson added. “Consequently, because of these values and William and Mary’s history of high voter registration and voting rates, I believe William and Mary students will continue to register to vote and will turn out at the polls. William and Mary students lead by example.”
The upcoming General and Special Elections will fall on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024. For voters in Virginia, the deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2024, and the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Wednesday, Oct. 25. Voters may vote after the registration deadline, however, they will receive provisional ballots.
