National Voter Registration Day 2018

Blue Hens eager to Get out the Vote

September 25, 2018″The University of Delaware’s Center for Political Communication joined the Biden Institute in promoting National Voter Registration Day by helping students register to vote and sign up for election alerts with the help of TurboVote’s University of Delaware page, udel.turbovote.org. A student-led initiative sponsored by the Center for Political Communication called “Make It Count” aims to combat antipathy among young voter by getting them excited about participating and pushing them to pledge to hold themselves accountable when it comes time to vote in elections.

Throughout the day at Trabant University Center, there was a steady stream of interested students who were eager to register to vote or interested in information about absentee voting in their home states. Of course, many students were also eager to grab the fun National Voter Registration Day stickers, which there were plenty of. Since the Make it Count campaign started in August, 602 students have registered to vote, putting UD at a little over a quarter toward its goal of 2,000 students registered this academic year.

A special guest also paid a visit to engage students and plead for them to both pay attention and vote. The 47th Vice President of the United States and UD alum, Joe Biden (AS 65), arrived to provide his support for CPC and Biden Institute efforts to engage students and encourage them to participate. “This is an incredible generation with such potential,” Biden said as he recounted how much progress had been made since his time at UD. He implored students to not let the progress we’ve made be in vain, instead making it clear to students that they must fight to keep moving forward.

To learn more about the University of Delaware’s Make It Count initiative, including resources for voters and the Living Room Conversation event for students on October 25, please visit cpc.udel.edu/makeitcount.