Cornell Votes fields a surge of student interest in voting
By Caitlin Hayes, Cornell Chronicle
More inquiries, more events, more forms, more excitement – the nonpartisan student group Cornell Votes is working overtime to register students to vote in the U.S. elections on Nov. 5.
“Already, you can tell that students are much more interested in voting,” said Camille Simmons ’25, president of Cornell Votes and a student in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management. “They’re learning more, they’re talking about it more, asking more questions. We’ve also had more faculty reach out to invite us to their classes, and more student groups reach out as well.”
Cornell Votes, a group of around 100 students committed to increasing participation in all elections, aims to reach 90% participation for eligible students and continue an upward trend in voter turnout, from 47.4% of Cornell students voting in 2016 to 66.1% in 2020. In the first three weeks of the semester, the group has engaged with more than 1,500 students and personally delivered more than 30 registration and absentee ballot request forms to the Ithaca Board of Elections.
“We genuinely want every person to be able to voice their opinion, to engage with the issues and to be able to say that they’re actually participating, making a difference and doing their civic duty,” Simmons said.