With less than a month before one-stop voting at Talley Student Union begins, NC State campus organizations are finding new ways to prepare and encourage students to vote.
Pack the Polls is a coalition of faculty, students, staff and community partners that was created two years ago during the 2016 presidential election.
Brian Mathis, associate director of Leadership and Civic Engagement at NC State, said the main objectives of Pack the Polls are informing the student body on upcoming elections, increasing voter registration and helping coordinate activity for different events.
“One goal of Pack the Polls is to centralize all primary communication across campus,” Mathis said. “And we do that through the Pack the Polls website.”
According to Mathis, the Pack the Polls website will be the central hub of information.
“[The website] will include resources to other groups that are non-partisan information hubs, helpful for looking at the ballot language and understanding the implications,” Mathis said. “Checking the Pack the Polls website is going to be a great resource for students, and also if students are interested in getting involved in a non-partisan coalition that is really about informing the body, they can become a Pack the Pollster by filling out a form on the website.”
Pack the Pollsters is a student outreach team that will train students on how to register to vote, as well as the particular nuances for on-campus residences who are looking to register and vote. They will also inform students about the early voting location in Talley and the early voting period.
Many students believe they are unable to vote if they fail to register before the deadline. According to Mathis, this is not true.
“With Talley being an early voting site, even if a student doesn’t register by the October 12 deadline, they can go and register and vote all at the same time at the early voting site,” Mathis said.
Mathis addressed another common misconception about registering to vote.
“A lot of out-of-state students initially think they cannot register to vote, but they are eligible to register to vote in [Wake County],” Mathis said.
Student Body President Jess Errico, a fifth-year studying mechanical and aerospace engineering, called Pack the Polls a “nonpartisan coalition of students, faculty and staff geared towards disseminating information about candidates and the amendments, and encouraging students to vote and educating students on how to do that.”
Errico said that it is still a little early to make any overarching assessments on the success of these initiatives.
“I’d say, as far as successes go, the university’s commitment to making the polling place on NC State’s campus played a huge role,” Errico said. “Getting the new polling location approved was in part due to the university’s efforts to minimize the inconveniences of non-affiliated individuals coming to campus to vote, while also maximizing the convenience for those on campus.”
Errico encourages students to register, vote and, for those interested in helping educate students, join the Pack the Polls initiative.
“There is no better way to have your voice heard than to vote,” Errico said. “To say [local elections] don’t impact our daily lives is not true. They impact us greatly and I would highly encourage students to go out and vote.”
According to Mathis, another goal of Pack the Polls is to “educate students in between the elections that typically gab the headlines.”
Mathis explained the goal is to have students go to the polls as informed voters.
“We really believe in students not just registering and voting, but actually being informed,” Mathis said. “We don’t tell students what they should be voting for; that’s not our goal and not our mission. Our objective simply is, we want to provide you with the resources, help you think critically about the election and for students to make the determination that best aligns with their values.”
