[129] MTSU stokes fires of participatory democracy with final voter registration push

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. —With Tennessee’s voter registration deadline of Tuesday, Oct. 9, fast approaching, MTSU is continuing its all-out efforts to register as many students as possible.

In addition to on-campus tent and table locations where voter registration will be available on Monday, Oct. 8, and Tuesday, Oct. 9, MTSU will fire up initiatives through social media, email blasts, signage and online opportunities. 

For the campus community, online buttons are posted on numerous MTSU webpages at www.mtsu.edu/amerdem, providing faculty, staff and students the convenience of registering online.

Two contests are fueling the already dynamic civic fervor on campus. One is Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s voter registration campaign challenge to universities across the state. Three winners among four-year institutions, two-year institutions and private universities will be chosen on the basis of number of students registered, social media presence and campus creativity.

The other competition is sponsored by TurboVote, a function of the nonprofit, nonpartisan organization Democracy Works. Backed by corporations including Amazon, Starbucks, Google and others, the TurboVote Challenge aims to help the United States reach 80 percent voter turnout by 2024. 

For MTSU to win both of these challenges, students, faculty and staff are encouraged to register through the red register to vote button athttps://mtsu.edu/amerdem/register-to-vote.php.

In June, MTSU introduced the True Blue Voter Registration initiative, a partnership with the Rutherford County Election Commission to assist students with registering to vote in Rutherford County elections or registering to vote by absentee ballot in any of Tennessee’s 94 other counties.

Those who have yet to register but want to vote absentee in a home county far from MTSU, registration tents will be available on the lawn of Peck Hall on Monday, Oct. 8, and Tuesday, Oct. 9. Election officials will register them in person and help them fill out their absentee applications at the same time.

Yet, long before outside contests and the True Blue Voter campaign, MTSU was at the forefront in promoting civic awareness and encouraging citizen participation.  

“We have always had an aggressive ‘register-to-vote’ program at MTSU, and we will continue to do so,” said Mary Evins, coordinator of the American Democracy Project for Civic Learning.

Monica Haun, a political science major from Knoxville, Tennessee, is president of the student ADP and the university’s Campus Election Engagement Project fellow. The CEEP, a national nonprofit initiative to get students engaged in the electoral process, provides Haun with training, webinars and tips on bias-free communication. Haun said she thinks the youth vote will rise in the upcoming November midterm elections.

“I think people are realizing how important it is to vote and that their vote does matter,” Haun said. “I’d be really surprised if it stayed stagnant, just because there has been so much change in Tennessee and nationally.”

Evins noted that, as part of the True Blue Voter initiative, the office of Rutherford County Election Commission Chairman Alan Farley registered almost 200 incoming students all summer long at CUSTOMS orientation sessions. 

Registration efforts have been taking place on campus since the first day of fall classes Aug. 27 and have been evident ever since, including during MTSU’s celebration of Constitution Day Sept. 17, during Hargett’s visit to campus Sept. 21 and on National Voter Registration Day Sept. 25.

The ADP and University Provost Mark Byrnes took the lead this fall in asking faculty to take 10 to 15 minutes at the beginning of each class to ask students to register on their digital devices. Online voter registration legislation was enacted in Tennessee in 2017. 

According to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement, 44.5 percent of MTSU students voted in 2016, a .5 percent increase from 2012. The 2016 voting rate for all institutions of higher learning participating in the study was 50.4 percent. Haun said she thinks social media will be a key factor this year.

“It’s on our Facebook; it’s on our Twitter; it’s on our Instagram,” Haun said. “It’s everywhere because people are posting about going to protests or posting articles that they found interesting, which, I think, is very new to our society.”

For those who would like to avoid the lines at the polls on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 6, the early voting period in Tennessee will run from Oct. 17 through Nov. 1.

For more information, contact Evins at 615-904-8241 or amerdem@mtsu.edu; Dia Cirillo, president of the Murfreesboro branch of the American Association of University Women, at President@AAUW-Murfreesboro; or the League of Women Voters of Tennessee at 629-777-5677 or lwvtenn@gmail.com.