COVID-19 poses challenges to college student voting bloc

The coronavirus pandemic is presenting new obstacles to many of the 20 million college students wishing to cast ballots this fall, voting experts said at an Aug. 31 National Press Club Headliner Newsmakers. event.

“Any number of barriers already exist for people who wish to cast their ballots," lawyer Thurgood Marshall Jr. said. "All of those challenges are amplified by the pandemic in general. But there are a number of very pointed challenges facing each student who wants to exercise their right to vote.”  

Even pre-COVID-19, students felt like there were “seven pits of alligators between them and the voting box,” said Paul Loeb, founder of the Campus Election Engagement Project.

CEEP, which helps students participate in elections, can't engage with them in the regular ways due to college and university closures.

 “You have many campuses that are physically closed with students taking classes online, you have some that are a hybrid – it presents significant challenges that were not there a year ago and are not there in normal times,” Loeb said.

Loeb said the group is relying on colleges to provide links to voter registration sites in student orientation materials, and to urge students to sign up via online platforms that provide reminders to vote and ballot drop box information. 

Fortunately, college students today are accustomed to going online for their information. “It’s a pretty wired-in generation,” he said.

The group's student fellows also are reaching out via social media accounts and plan virtual classroom visits.

Marshall said there could be other problems as well, most notably lockdowns due to the virus.

“I need a three step plan on how I’m going to cast my vote," he said. "I need a preferred plan, a backup, and probably another back-up – and that is particularly the case with these students across the country.”

Loeb and Marshall said some states are trying to hinder student voting, even without the coronavirus.

“There are, within the United States, individuals in positions of power who are seeking to limit the opportunities for students to vote,” Marshall said.

Students who do not trust or like any of the candidates need to be encouraged to show up.

“You want to be able to convince the students that even if they are cynical about politics, nonetheless it matters,” Loeb said. 

Marshall stressed that an individual who casts a first vote is highly likely to continue to vote, and many people vote for the first time while in college.

“There is nothing more important to our democracy than the right to vote, and it’s a shame to let that wither on the vine for an individual,” Marshall said.  

Students looking for information about voter registration and their rights can go to CEEP’s site at https://campuselect.org/.