Hofstra Votes continues civic engagement campaign as Election Day nears

With the 2020 presidential election just a little over 13 months away, Hofstra Votes, the civic engagement campaign created last year, has begun working to ensure that Hofstra students will be ready to cast their ballots.

On Tuesday, Sept. 10, in the Student Center Atrium in the Sondra and David S. Mack Student Center, Hofstra Votes held an Information and Registration Tabling event that provided on-site voter services for Hofstra students. Volunteers helped students register to vote, check their registration status, apply for absentee ballots and locate their polling places.

“It is really twofold,” said Karla Schuster, assistant vice president for University Relations, about the event. “First of all, to get people to register to vote, and to encourage students to vote ... Secondarily, it’s about getting people thinking about the election ... thinking about voting; thinking about what it means to be engaged in the political process,” Schuster said. “It’s educational.”

Staff from the Nassau County Board of Elections were also on hand and worked alongside Hofstra Votes volunteers. They assisted students registering to vote in New York state as well as those applying for absentee ballots, and also helped “educate students on using voter machines” by providing hands-on demonstrations, said Abraham C. Haygood, Democratic campaign finance director and voter outreach and education demonstrator.

“It doesn’t matter how old you are. Whether you’re 18 or 94, when it’s your first time registering to vote it’s always something new and it can be a little confusing and scary. So that’s the purpose of why we have our Voter Outreach department ... we go out and we’re there to assist people and show them [how to vote] in advance,” Haygood said.

He also noted that Board of Elections staff members at the event informed students of a recent change to New York’s voting laws: that, for the first year ever, the State will allow early voting beginning nine days prior to the election (Oct. 26 to Nov. 3).

“I wasn’t going to vote, but now that I’m here talking to people, understanding why they’re voting and others are voting, I see the importance of it now,” said Tyrone Harmon, a Hofstra alumnus who worked as a volunteer at the event for Hofstra Votes. “I understand it.” Junior journalism major Anthony Genuaodo said the voter services table reminded him that he will be living away from home, at Hofstra, on Election Day — so he decided to apply for an absentee ballot. “I’m just doing my duties as an American citizen to vote,” Genuaodo said, adding that Hofstra Votes’ effort to prepare students to vote in 2020 is a positive step for democracy.

By the end of Tuesday’s event, volunteers had provided voter services (either registration, verification of prior registration, application for absentee ballots or location of polling places) to 211 students, Schuster said. She also noted that the 18 to 35-year-old demographic is already a formidable voting bloc and has the potential to have a major impact on the 2020 election as long as turnout is high.

“The power is there. It’s all for the taking. People just need to register to vote,” Schuster said.

Leading up to the 2020 election, Hofstra Votes will offer voting services for Hofstra students on seven more occasions: on Sept. 24, which is National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 25 and Oct. 2, Oct. 16, Oct. 23, Oct. 24 (during the Theodore Roosevelt conference being held by Hofstra) and Oct. 29.