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While many incoming and returning college students may show more concern with new classes, new friends and new living arrangements this September, a greater challenge looms on the November horizon. In what is arguably the most important and most exciting presidential election in recent history - one prefaced by a record-breaking presidential primary season for youth voter turnout - polling places and voting offices are expecting a huge showing from citizens ages 18 to 24 some two months from now. To ensure a voice for Loyola students, a college-wide voting initiative will be taking place throughout September and October, right up until the election night in November.
Spearheading the initiative are student-body president Alex Hollis, '09, and Kat Kienle, '10, with Fr. Jack Dennis serving in an advisory role. Hollis and Kienle hope to register roughly 1,500 students, in addition to anywhere between 200 and 250 faculty; the overall goal, though, demands that all 1,500 newly-registered students vote as well. Said Kienle, "We can disagree on so many things, but we can't disagree on the privilege of voting."
A push for some sort of voting initiative on Loyola's campus began late last April, when Dennis approached Hollis about implementing a voter drive for the fall semester. The senior-year Student Government Association (or SGA) president was already seriously considering such a drive; said Hollis, "It's the most important election of our lifetimes so far, and to not have a voice in it would be sad." Kienle jumped on board after asking Hollis whether SGA would be sponsoring a voter registration drive in the fall. Following some initial logistical meetings, the team of three sought to make their idea a reality.
"It was very important for me as a citizen and as a Jesuit priest to have voting made easy," Dennis said.
Utilizing their summer stay on Loyola's campus, Hollis and Kienle worked furiously, establishing the necessary foundations for Loyola's voter drive. The duo spoke with the voter registration boards of the top 15 states from which students hail to acquire the essential information regarding registration in each state and submitting absentee ballots. In addition, the team contacted the Admissions Department to find the break-down of Loyola students by state. As word of the voting initiative grew, more groups on campus became involved, including the International Awareness Association and the Center for Community Service and Justice, as well as a slew of administrators and faculty members.
"It's a really unique thing," said Hollis. "An initiative started by one or two kids metamorphosed to something that the entire school has a stake in."
Logistically, any voter registration drive is difficult to put together. According to Kienle, voter registration regulations vary by state, and a majority of states have deadlines of October 4 or shortly after. Therefore, Hollis and Kienle are aiming to have the majority of registration forms mailed by September 30. However, Loyola's voter drive is distinct because it is absenteeballot-driven and not polling-place driven, which adds another element of challenge to the initiative.
"[We] tried to get a polling place on campus, but because there is a polling place within a mile, [we] couldn't get one," Dennis said.
Therefore, Loyola's voting drive will focus solely on registering students and ensuring that all registered students can vote via absentee ballot. Even Maryland residents will most likely vote via absentee, otherwise the students would have to return to their home polling venue on election day - a problematic circumstance. "It is definitely a bit more challenging than just getting a polling place," Kienle acknowledged.
To facilitate voter registration, tables will be placed outside Boulder Garden Café between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. every Tuesday through Thursday and Primo's between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Wednesdays.
With such a large-scale operation to run, the cost of the voting initiative keeps piling up: envelopes, stamps, t-shirts, events, scanners and Xerox machines need to be bought or borrowed to achieve success. Dennis noted that the voting initiative is "more complicated than having just a lot of enthusiastic people."
"You're always going to have challenges when working with an all-volunteer staff and students who sometimes confuse priorities," said Dennis. "But," he continued, "we have a team of very responsible people and everywhere we've turned on campus, everybody's been very enthusiastic and very cooperative."
The team also enlisted some outside help for their initiative in the form of Michael Raia, the deputy press secretary for Maryland's Lieutenant Governor, Anthony Brown. Raia, who ran his own voter registration drive as a student at Providence College during the 2004 presidential election, directed Hollis, Kienle and Dennis toward Rock the Vote during a planning meeting held in June.
Although not affiliated with Loyola's voting initiative in any official capacity, Raia suggested the team use products and images sponsored by Rock the Vote, the 18-year-old organization which uses artistic expression and popular culture to increase youth activism in the U.S. political process. Hollis, Kienle and Dennis met with Rock the Vote affiliates in July.
Said Dennis, "Mike Raia gave us a lot of do's and don't's and pointed us in the right direction.
Using Raia's 2004 drive at Providence as a model, Hollis and Kienle worked to plan special events to highlight Loyola's voter registration drive. Local band Jahworks, a crowd favorite at last year's Loyolapalooza, was recruited for a free concert on the Quad on September 12. Voter registration tables will be set up, and student volunteers will be on the scene to help register fellow classmates.
Said Kienle, "If people don't register, it definitely won't be because they didn't know they had an opportunity to."
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