Early Voting Arrives in Canton

From October 26 to November 3, Canton, is hosting the first early voting booth in St. Lawrence County. 

But St. Lawrence students might be unlikely to utilize early voting or to vote in general. 

St. Lawrence County is mostly composed of college students and people over 65, according to Commissioners of Elections Jennie Bacon (D) and Thomas Nichols (R). 

Bacon and Nichols said voter turnout in the county has been low across the younger generation. 

Increasing voter participation is their main priority for this election and the 2020 presidential election. Access to early voting is meant to counteract this trend and increase turnout. 

To Nichols, early voting is now “the law.” Regardless of whether people like early voting or wish to participate, he said every county in New York has to have an early voting booth this year. 

Previously, the only thing people could do was vote absentee or go to the poll booth on Election Day. 

“Early voting is going to flex when people vote, but it’s not going to change the basic pool of who wants to vote,” he said.

 “Those who want to vote are inspired to vote for a reason. Early voting gives them more options to vote.” Bacon said, “Making voting convenient will make it more popular.” 

Access to early voting will be helpful for students who live on campus but who cannot apply for absentee ballots. 

Due to St. Lawrence County’s size, students may live in Canton but have to drive two or three hours on Election Day because they still live in the county. 

Early voting allows students to go to the early voting booth and have a say in their elections. 

However, early voting has not been well received by some locals, for example Frederic Nentwick from Gouverneur. 

Although Nentwick is planning to vote, he will not go during early voting days. “I don’t know anything about it so I won’t be using it,” he said. 

61 percent of SLU students are registered out of state, meaning most students must vote absentee, as stated in College Board’s SLU Student Body facts. 

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement (NSLVE), a research initiative led by Tufts University, 30.4 percent of eligible students voted absentee. 

The problems arise when students forget to apply for absentee voting or apply incorrectly. 

Katharine Andy, a senior from Concord, NH, said voting absentee has been a difficult process. “I think I got a form that has an incorrect request, but that’s what I got from voter.org,” she said. 

Sophomore Katherine Hamlin, from New Hartford, NY, also noted the challenges of absentee voting. 

“I forgot to send in to get my absentee vote this year,” she said, “but that was a slip up on my part.” 

To help students with voter registration and absentee ballots, SLU has partnered with the Andrew Goodman Foundation (AGF) to implement a “Vote Everywhere” project. 

“The AGF is an organization that is focused on increasing voter education and involvement,” said Lisa Torrey, co-leader of the AGF. 

“Increasing awareness about registration and voting on campus, and making it easier for students.” Juniors Ella Charslesworth, a sociology major, and Bezawit Tefera, a global studies and government major, have volunteered with the AGF for a year now. They said they have been trying to increase voter turn-out on campus. 

“A big thing that we have done is present to the First-Year Programs, and that has been really successful,” Charlesworth said. 

“We’ve been holding weekly meetings, and people are free to join our Presence.” 

She said the AGF’s current focus is on “getting the word out about early voting and mailing out absentee ballots.” 

Charlesworth also said “we want people to know that we are a resource on campus…because we’re able to not only provide people with the forms they need and help get them access to that, but we can do the whole mailing process for them.” 

The AGF on campus partnered with Tufts University in hopes of gaining more information on SLU’s political climate. 

The NSLVE study confirms the lack of voting by SLU students. In the 2016 elections, only 44 percent of students voted. 

Although that turnout was a 3.7 increase from the 2012 elections, the average voter turnout for more than 1,000 colleges involved in the Tufts University’s study was 50.4 percent.

In 2016, of the 2,174 students who were eligible to vote, only 1,684 students registered, and a total of 957 students voted, 30.4 percent by absentee ballot. 

There is still time to vote. The last day for early voting will be Sunday, November 3, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the official day to vote is Election Day: Tuesday, November 5, from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.