One hundred forty-one students, faculty, and community members cast their ballots in Kent Campus Center on Oct. 23. This was the seventh time Simpson has hosted a satellite polling place since Seth Anderson, director of John C. Culver Public Policy Center, joined the college in 2014.
“It’s a tremendous convenience,” Andersen said. “Simpson College has a strong institutional commitment to voting. Our goal is to remove any barriers whatsoever. [We want to] create an environment where all students are aware of their voting rights and comfortable exercising them.”
Junior Reggie Wearmouth-Gweah said the ability to vote on campus made voting more accessible.
“Since I don’t drive, I would’ve had to find someone to drive me [to my polling place] and back to Simpson, so being able to walk here on campus is good,” he said.
Andersen also hopes to make voting more realistic for students who are unfamiliar with the process.
“For many students, this is their first major, first federal election they’re able to vote in,” he said. “It can be intimidating. There’s a lot of paperwork to fill out, there’s a lot of deadlines, a lot of rules. So what we do, what the auditor’s office does, is demystify the process, make it easy for people to get registered and cast their ballot.”
Students appreciate this effort to ease anxious feelings about voting.
“You don’t have to go out of your way to vote,” senior Ellie Gray said. “It makes it so that more people will do it, which is important. Students are involved and educated and want to have their voice heard, and it’s a lot easier to do that when there’s a place on campus.”
Warren County officials recognize the significance of supporting student voting, as well.
“It’s very important for the students that it’s right here on campus,” Warren County Deputy Auditor Allison Stephens said. “They can do it [vote] when they’re walking to and from class, especially if there’s no line. It also helps them because if they don’t have their lease, they can go get their lease real quick and be right back.”
Simpson’s Vice President of Student Development and Dean of Students Matt Hansen wanted to make the process even more seamless this election for students wanting to register in Warren County and vote the same day.
“Matt said, ‘Why don’t we just print lease agreements for all the students and put them in their mailboxes?’ So we did that on Tuesday morning,” Andersen said. “So now every student who comes up and says, ‘I need to register to vote on-site,’ we just have to say, ‘Go check your mailbox, your lease is right there.'”
The event required collaboration between Residence Life, the Culver Center and the Warren County Auditor’s Office. The college and community want students to be civically engaged, so they gave them an opportunity to do so.
“The turnout has been wonderful,” Warren County Auditor Kimberly Sheets said. “It’s nice to see the students being active and proactive, getting involved and seeing different things. I hope someday they all get interested in politics. It’s a different world out there, and we need the young folks.”
Students who missed the early voting satellite polling place on campus are still encouraged to vote on Election Day. There will be an altered class schedule on Nov. 5, and Simpson will be providing a free shuttle for students to their respective polling places; it will run 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m to 7 p.m, leaving from the West side of Kent Campus Center.
