The Freedom From Religion Foundation is proudly underwriting campus organizing fellows at key universities in Wisconsin to focus on student voter registration and securing vote pledges.
The fellows started work in late August and will continue until Election Day, doing everything from canvassing and talking to classes about voting to running voter registration drives on campus and compiling data on Wisconsin polling places. They are working on the campuses of the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire and the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
I spoke with our Eau Claire fellow, Dylan Peck, a junior studying sociology, political science and urban and regional planning, to discuss his efforts to ensure Eau Claire’s student body votes in this election. Dylan related that important issues for students are reproductive freedom, LGBTQ-plus rights and education-related topics, such as public school funding and student loan forgiveness, and that students will be voting accordingly.
To help students vote, Dylan has aided in assembling voter ID and proof of residency information for over 30 different campuses in Wisconsin and helped create nonpartisan voter information sheets. These voter information sheets included information on what will appear on ballots and where students can vote. The research compiled by campus organizing fellows also facilitated the creation of a voter information website specifically targeting Wisconsin college students. Eau Claire’s Davies Student Center will be a polling place on Election Day, Nov. 5.
Dylan recounted the efforts of campus organizing fellows to emphasize the weight of votes by Wisconsinites as a swing state. From conversations he has had with students, he believes that Eau Claire’s student body is aware of the importance of their votes and is energized to vote this year. He shared that the overall attitude toward voting on campus is that “A vote is owed.”
Dylan added that Eau Claire also houses many Minnesota residents who have registered to vote since the start of the fall semester, and many professors purposefully bring awareness of the importance of voting to their classes.
The initiative aims to engage and register young voters, particularly Generation Z, the least religious generation in modern American history, but with lower voting turnout than other “Nones.” By placing fellows on campuses, FFRF seeks to increase voter awareness and turnout among these students, who represent a significant but often underrepresented demographic in the electoral process.
Thanks to the efforts of campus organizing fellows and professors, such as Dylan, the critical nature of this election will, I hope, not be lost on Eau Claire and other Wisconsin campuses among Gen Z voters.
