In March, Evan Cornell (CAS ’27) was excited to vote for the first time, but his ballot never arrived.
Cornell, a Florida resident, wanted to vote in the presidential primaries, but when he requested his mail-in ballot, it never arrived at Georgetown. He’s not sure what went wrong.
“Here at Georgetown, we don’t have a mailbox with our name on it. It has to go to the university, who then files it to us,” Cornell said. “If there’s some mix-up in the process, you miss one letter, one number, it might not show up. And then, essentially, you’re being disenfranchised.”
Cornell is one of 41 million Generation Z voters—according to a Tufts University study—eligible to vote in November, but undelivered ballots as well as state-specific voting laws can pose barriers to voting for students.
In 10 states, voters need at least one witness to cast an absentee ballot. In four states, they even need a notary, a designated public official who can serve as an impartial witness, to verify their absentee ballot. For students who are unaware of these requirements, the extra hassle can discourage voting.
Getting registered to vote can also be difficult from afar. In states like Wisconsin, there is a cut-off date a few weeks before an election, after which citizens can only register in person, as opposed to online or via mail. Other states don’t allow any voter registration—in-person, online, or by mail—within a few weeks of an election.
When Alexa Garber (CAS ’28) tried to register to vote in March—the month she turned 18—she couldn’t do it online because it was within 20 days of the Wisconsin primary.
“You can’t register to vote three weeks before an election, unless you’re there, in person, or if you go to your clerk’s office, which is really annoying for people who don’t live in Wisconsin anymore,” Garber said.
Garber did not register to vote until a few months later.
Beyond voting registration, some students said it’s confusing to find information about mail-in voting.
“With navigating Arizona’s policies specifically, I have been left feeling very confused,” Maria Halter (CAS ’27) wrote in an email to the Voice. “Upon looking into how to get my absentee ballot, I found that the information is more concealed than I would like. It ultimately only had a number for me to call to register.”
Halter has relied on her family mailing her a ballot, rather than changing the address for her mail-in ballot.
“In the past, my mom has had to mail me my ballot, which has been successful, but can also not be preferred by many students for a plethora of reasons, such as parents not having similar political beliefs and therefore do not want to send their children their ballots,” Halter wrote.
For students like Halter, who have family members send them their ballots, the envelope won’t have the official election stamps that signify importance to the U.S. Postal Service and to Georgetown.
To avoid issues with their ballots or registration, Cornell, Garber, and Halter all advised that students research their state’s policies early on. Sam Lovell (CAS ’25), co-president of GU Votes, a student-led voter advocacy organization, offered the same advice.
“Start early. Register early. Don’t just do it on the deadline,” Lovell said. “It can take several weeks for your registration to be approved, for your documents to come, and for your ballot to come. So if you want to participate—and you should want to participate—act early.”
In the last few years, 48 states have introduced bills that raise barriers to voting, like implementing stricter identification and documentation requirements to register or cast a ballot. Critics of these policies say that these laws aim to disempower voters of color and have their roots in Jim Crow-era voting restrictions that disenfranchised Black voters.
While many of the proposed voting restrictions have not been passed into law, Halter said that these proposals make it even more important for students to be proactive in researching their state’s laws.
“Many politicians, specifically in recent years, have attempted to limit or silence student voices and our votes because they know that we have the capability to elect politicians who will adhere to our values,” Halter wrote. “This makes it even more difficult and crucial that we know and understand our state’s voting laws.”
Pratik Jacob (CAS ’25), the other co-president of GU Votes, added that while registering and voting can seem “daunting,” GU Votes will work with students to make sense of their state’s laws and meet any requirements. With the help of GU Votes, 93% of Georgetown students were registered to vote in 2020.
“GU Votes is doing everything we can to provide all the resources and support and make this as accessible and easy and straightforward as we possibly can,” Jacob said. “We can make it a fairly simple process for every student here, regardless of what state you’re from.”
GU Votes offers stamped envelopes for students’ election-related mail, arranges notaries for students’ ballots, and works to register students to vote every year through initiatives like Storm the Dorms, a campus-wide voter registration drive for which Cornell and Halter both volunteered this year.
Interviewed students all encouraged their peers to make the effort to vote. Cornell also emphasized the importance of down-ballot elections and local politics, since many tend to focus on presidential elections.
“It’s about your state legislatures. It’s about your school boards, your town or city commissions, it’s about who is the sheriff in your county—it is so much more than just the White House,” Cornell said. “Everyone needs to vote, no matter how hard it is.”
Garber added that as young people, college students have a unique position and opportunity to influence politics.
“The younger population’s perspective on politics is very different from the older generation, typically,” Garber said. “Having young college voters out there is very important.”
Cornell said that the results of the November election could have far-reaching impacts and encouraged students to vote to protect their interests.
“Having an active participation and making sure your rights aren’t taken away and aren’t stripped is extremely important, because you could wake up on November 6th and all of a sudden the world has changed,” Cornell said. “You’ve got to vote for your rights, vote for your beliefs, and know that you can make a change.”
