After high student voter turnout in 2018, Penn State groups are looking for a 2020 repeat
The Pennsylvania primary election is two months away, but organizations looking to increase voter turnout are in full swing on Penn State’s campus.
Penn State’s newest organization dedicated to increasing voter turnout — the student chapter of the League of Women Voters, or LWVPSU — is an affiliate of the Centre County chapter of the same name. The group will create informative pamphlets, register students to vote, and advocate for polling places and times to be more easily accessible to students.
“Many students report not knowing enough about candidates to vote,” Sue Sargo, one of the co-presiding officers of the Centre County Chapter of the League of Women Voters, said in an email. “This problem is exacerbated by massive amounts of information and misinformation circulating through social media.”
In the 2018 midterm elections, Penn State voters at the HUB-Robeson Center had record turnout, with a 530 percent increase in all Penn State precincts. LWVPSU and other organizations on campus have revved up efforts in attempt to duplicate and surpass that turnout for the April 28 primary election, and again in November.
The Centre County Chapter of the League of Women Voters, or LWVCC, has a target demographic of Centre County residents more broadly as opposed to Penn State students. The idea for a student chapter arose when Laura Brown, a liaison for LWVCC, wanted to bring the League’s ideas to local students, since they represent such a large portion of the Centre County population.
“Obviously, if you’re 60 versus 18, you’re going to have different concerns when voting,” said Sarabeth Bowmaster, a freshman at Penn State and the president of LWVPSU. “I think it’s really important to vote, especially at our age, since we’re the ones who are going to be dealing with whatever happens politically for the longest amount of time.”
Organizations turn to creative techniques to register voters
And turnout is important — especially in Centre County, which is often a swing county, and in Pennsylvania, which is poised to be a battleground state for the presidential election.
Kelsey Denny, the president of the Penn State College Democrats, said this is an important reason students should choose to vote in State College rather than their hometowns.
“I always kind of tell the narrative that you live here nine months out of the year — this is your home,” Denny said. “You should want to elect the people who are going to represent you within those nine months.”
The College Democrats use “dorm-storming” — sending people into dorms on election day — tabling in high traffic areas and “class reps” to maximize registration. The last technique is one in which members register an entire lecture hall of students at once.
“We’ll come out with like 1,000 (registered students) sometimes,” Denny said. “We’ve done that in Thomas (Building) before and it was amazing.”
Denny said that this time around, the College Democrats will be using data provided by Penn State on the various colleges to target students who haven’t registered to vote yet, a new development that will allow for increased registration effectiveness.
“In previous years, we haven’t, to my knowledge, gone off of a lot of data. It’s kind of just been ‘Let’s be in the HUB this day, in the library this day,’ or any other location and just kind of hope that it works out,” Denny said. “We’re actually going off of data this year, which is awesome because we’ll enfranchise students who have never voted before.”
By accessing data on what percentage of each college votes, they can target certain schools with lower percentages.
Reaching students is also a primary goal of NextGen America, a progressive advocacy nonprofit that aims to increase voter turnout among younger populations.
Robin Moussa, the regional organizing director of NextGen America, wants to reach turnout goals by having a constant public presence on campus and answering questions students have so they can become more interested in and passionate about politics.
“A good way to generate momentum around electoral issues is by talking about issues that affect people in the area,” Moussa said. “More issue-based organizing, and being advocates for marginalized communities, is a really important way to generate the student vote.”
What stops students from voting?
In past elections, one challenge for Penn State student voters has been knowing where to go.
“There was a lot of confusion in November with regard to who votes where and what dorms vote,” Bowmaster said. “Some people had to go downtown and didn’t know it, so we want to make (voting) less confusing.”
That’s the hope for upcoming elections following the approval of two new voter precincts in State College that create one centralized voting place for Penn State students starting in April.
For Sean Semanko, the president of Penn State’s chapter of Turning Point USA, the biggest thing preventing students from voting has been a reason to care.
“Many young people don’t think their vote counts,” Semanko said. “Many students are not working yet, paying taxes, or seeing the effects local, state, and national policies have on their lives. Once they grow older and see these effects on their lives, they’ll be more inclined to vote.”
Semanko said that another way to increase involvement is to have “energizing” candidates running, like Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump. Nationally, TPUSA has conducted voter registration drives, but Penn State’s chapter has not.
Semanko suggests students vote wherever they think it will count the most.
That’s easier this year with new changes in place for how Pennsylvania voters can use mail-in ballots, one of the voting reforms signed into law last year by Gov. Tom Wolf. It allows voters the option of casting ballots by mail without having to provide a reason.
“(The mail-in ballot) essentially eliminates the need for any ‘excuse’ to vote by mail, making that option accessible to anyone, including all eligible PA student voters,” Sargo said. “They will be able to vote in all primary and general elections utilizing this mail-in ballot.”
The deadline for county elections offices to receive applications for mail-in ballots is 5 p.m. April 21.
April 13 is the last day to register to vote before the primary election. For more information about how to register to vote, visit www.pavoterservices.pa.gov.