Photo courtesy of HamVotes
Voting is one of the most important rights individuals have in this country. There are countless boundaries and struggles that individuals face just to submit their ballot — to use their voice. One of these obstacles is not just education but access to education. As a result, HamVotes aims to provide this information for Hamilton students. They are a member of the larger NESCAC Votes initiative to educate student voters and make the voting process as simple as possible. Last semester, this was the primary direction that HamVotes took.
Last semester, the club distributed door tags with information on how to vote by mail to encourage and increase voter turnout. Throughout the semester, they planned tabling events, registering students to vote in either their hometown or in the local district around Hamilton. Later on, they partnered with the mail center to provide free stamps for all students’ ballots, removing as many barriers as possible to get the most amount of students to vote. Upon reflecting on their work after the election, they wanted to continue their work with the campus community to promote voter education and involvement. In order to achieve this goal, HamVotes wants to gauge the thoughts and ideas of the student population, therefore creating the survey that was sent out last week.
The goal of the survey is to understand the voting experience of students. The club wants to collect this data to plan for the future. After multiple brainstorming sessions, the members determined the questions should be guided to not only talk about how individuals voted, such as by-mail, in-person, or absentee but also what resources students found useful, such as the information presented on the club website or Instagram. Furthermore, the survey referred to a first-year module that incoming freshmen were required to complete during orientation. This is geared at trying to understand the impact of that module: whether it was something memorable and worthwhile, or if it was forgotten with no takeaways. With this knowledge, they are able to target the desired population of individuals most effectively and have the most significant impact possible.
Once the survey closes, HamVotes will review the responses, examining for commonalities across the student body. Using this information, the club will reform its materials and outreach efforts. The first-year module is a prime example of this. One main conversation amongst the club members has been the content of this module. Especially with the changing political climate and the fact that there is no current election cycle, this module may be reorganized to maximize the educational opportunity it provides. This type of redefinition is extremely beneficial to all, as it will allow the club to not only grow but also to engage more positively and impactfully with the student population.
Overall, the survey was created to provide HamVotes with the voting experiences of their peers. This newfound knowledge will contribute greatly to the revised resources the club will provide. At its core, the goal of all of this work is to limit the restrictions to voting, to help individuals become increasingly informed and make well-thought-out decisions. Voting is a basic right and far too many people face obstacles, constituting action to be taken. HamVotes works to take that action so all can use their voice.