Registered voters in Poweshiek County will be able to cast their ballot early at an on-campus satellite voting location, Joe Rosenfield Center (JRC) 101, on Thursday, Oct. 17. To prepare for early voting, campus organizations centered around student civic participation have been at work to register student voters and make voting this election season go as smoothly as possible.
Campus Democrats estimates having registered and re-registered around 200 students while tabling outside of the dining hall 2 to 3 times weekly since the beginning of the school year. The Program in Practical Political Education (PPPE) and the Office of Civic Education and Innovation (OCEI) combined their efforts to run a registration drive on Sept. 24, National Voter Registration Day, where they registered an estimated additional 200 students.
“I think that’s a fairly significant number,” Ryan Solomon, associate director of civic education and innovation, said. “I think it speaks to the fact that students are eager to make their voice heard.”
The S&B spoke with 96 students on Monday, Oct. 7 in the JRC, asking if they were registered to vote this election season. 81 percent of interviewees said they were registered to vote, 58 percent of which are registered in the state of Iowa. Many indicated that they feel like their vote matters here more than it would at home, like Alyx Allred `26 from Arkansas and Amen Wakjira `26 from Minnesota.
“I just feel like my chances of voting here in Iowa—my vote’s going to possibly make more of an impact,” Allred said.
15 percent of interviewees indicated they were not registered—one domestic student due to ineligibility, 12 being international students and two indicating ambivalence to the election.
“I think it’s really important for us, especially as people who attend an elite institution, that we kind of use the knowledge that we gain here,” Kaycie Brookens `26, president of Campus Democrats, said. “We know our power, and we have the obligation to put it to use.”
“I firmly believe that [student voters] can have a really profound impact on elections,” Tatum Watkins `27, vice president of Campus Democrats, said. “Iowa has had elections for Congress, for example, that have been lost by only six votes. And that’s really, really crazy to think about.”
PPPE and OCEI have worked to publicize voting options and provide support to students casting their ballots, including tabling in the Humanities and Social Studies Center (HSSC) and JRC to answer questions during satellite voting. They have also scheduled shuttles to voting places on Nov. 5.
David Harrison, interim director of PPPE and professor of French, stressed the ways in which students impact and are impacted by local politics.
“They [Grinnell students] purchase and participate in our community, and they are directly affected by state policies that affect things like public health and safety, such as vaccines or disease control, gun policy regarding whether people in the community can carry concealed weapons. They are directly affected by state legislation regarding reproductive health and reproductive rights,” Harrison said.
“Students are affected by state policy, and therefore they absolutely should participate in choosing who represents them to the State House … So either they choose not to participate in choosing that representative, or they do.”
Harrison later provided a fourth issue via email for students to consider while voting — transgender rights.
“Our legislature might consider bills regarding whether trans individuals can use the restroom of their choice or receive an Iowa driver’s license with the gender of their choice, among other things,” Harrison wrote.
Additional satellite voting will be held on Monday, Oct. 21 at the Drake Community Library. Voter registration ends on Oct. 21 but eligible voters may still register on the same day at both satellite and official voting locations.
For more information about voting in person in Iowa, students can visit the Grinnell College website.
