If you didn’t know this by now, Election Day is Nov. 5. The Simpson College Culver Public Policy Center has many resources to help students through the voting process.
Getting registered to vote is the first step in this process. Simpson students can register to vote in several ways, depending on where they want to do it. According to Seth Andersen, Culver Center executive director, the most straightforward option for students who live on campus is to fill out a paper voter registration form through the county auditor’s office.
Students can find this form at the Warren County auditor’s office at 301 N Buxton St. #101 or print it out online by typing “state of Iowa official voter registration form” into Google. The county auditor’s office processes registration forms immediately and mails out voter identification cards with essential information like your polling place shortly after.
Students from other counties in Iowa who want to register in their home county have two options. The first is to fill out a paper form, which Simpson will mail to the county auditor in their home county. Iowa has fully online voter registration as well, so students who are Iowa residents can register to vote online using a valid state-issued ID at www.voterready.iowa.gov.
The website mentioned above is also where students can update their address if they have moved. It is essential for returning students who register at their campus address to re-register every year.
“A really important point for college students is most students at Simpson need to re-register every year because most students change their residence hall or address on campus every year,” Andersen said. Even moving a short distance can impact your voting precinct. If you live on the East campus, your polling place will be different than if you live on the West half of campus, and so on.
Out-of-state students who want to register to vote in their home state or check their registration status can use a custom website called TurboVote, which is just for Simpson students. TurboVote is linked on SC Connect under the “My Links” feature or the Culver Center webpage. Students who live on campus can also use TurboVote to register, which has the added benefit of an address drop-down feature that pre-populates campus addresses.
Andersen said it is important to register with the street address of your physical residence, not your mailbox number in Kent Campus Center. If you don’t know the street address of your building, Culver Center has an official list of all campus addresses and is happy to help with the whole process. The voter registration form will ask where you receive mail, which is where you will put 701 North C St. with your mailbox number if you live on campus.
Commuter students can register to vote with their permanent home address at their county auditor’s office or online.
The deadline to register to vote in advance is Oct. 21, but it is not the end of the world if students forget. Under Iowa law, you can register on the spot at your polling place on Election Day.
Culver Center is working with Residence Life and the IT Department this year to ensure that every student who lives on campus gets a copy of their residential lease in their mailbox two weeks before the election. To register on the spot, you will need your residential lease to prove where you live. To vote, you will also need a valid photo ID or a voter identification card if you have pre-registered.
Simpson encourages students to register before Oct. 21, so all they have to do is show up and vote. You can also check your registration status on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website or call the county auditor’s office to verify your current information.
After you register, it’s time to vote. Students can find where they go to vote in the graphic containing polling places. You can also look up your polling place on the Iowa Secretary of State’s website, or the back of your voter identification card.
Simpson was also approved to have a satellite polling place in Kent Atrium. A satellite polling place is like a universal voting location, so anyone registered to vote in Warren County can cast an absentee (early) vote there. The Warren County auditor has not yet selected a date for the satellite polling place to occur, but it is typically two weeks before Election Day.
Rather than go to their assigned polling place on Election Day, students can vote early right in Kent. A satellite polling place on campus allows students, staff and even people in the neighborhood to conveniently vote on campus.
Absentee voting through the mail is more complicated. If you want to cast an absentee vote through mail, visit the Culver Center to discuss this process.
Two years ago, Simpson officially adopted an altered class schedule for Election Day. For every general election day, the schedule will have a two-hour block between noon and two p.m. There will not be any classes, meetings, athletic practices or anything on the calendar. This allows students, faculty or staff who have not voted yet to do so.
“Simpson, as a college, is very supportive of students voting. The college does basically everything it can to encourage and support students to get registered and to take the time to vote,” Andersen said.
Simpson will also be running shuttle buses from Kent to the polling places in Indianola on Election Day. If it is bad weather, or students don’t have much time and don’t want to walk, they can get a ride to their polling place. Polls open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Election Day.
In 2020, 75% of students registered to vote did so in the presidential election. That was the highest voter turnout rate Simpson ever had. Simpson’s voter rate even matched the national average, a rare occurrence. Andersen hopes to reach this number again and encourages students to take advantage of their right to vote.
According to Andersen, young people should vote because when they don’t vote, it’s as if they are giving their vote to older generations.
“You’re basically just allowing folks who do vote at a high rate to make all the decisions for you,” Andersen said. “And you might love your parents and grandparents, but they may not vote the way you would want them to. They may have different interests.”
Brooklynn Ecklin, a junior and a double major in criminal justice and human services, is the lead ambassador of the Vote Everywhere program at Simpson. Ecklin and other Culver Fellows give presentations to all the Foundations classes to educate about voting and help students register.
Ecklin thinks students should vote if they want their voices heard and she wants students to remember every vote counts.
“A lot of these things in the upcoming election are going to affect our generation the most,” Ecklin said. “And why not vote? If we want to be on campus and if we want to start our adult lives, this is a great step in that direction.”
