Arcadia in an Election Year: Participating in our Democracy
Arcadia’s campus has been buzzing with updates about the 2024 presidential election since the very beginning of the fall semester. With debate watch parties, voter workshops, and tons of outreach from organizations like Arcadia Votes, the community has done a wonderful job of encouraging students to cast their ballots in the presidential race this November!
Arcadia kicked off its conversation about the election in a big way with a campus-wide watch party for the presidential debate hosted by ABC on September 10. Arcadia Votes, a nonpartisan initiative with the goal of emphasizing the importance of democratic engagement, held this event in the Beaver College Room of the Landman Library. The gathering was complete with fun drinks, snacks, stickers that promote voting, and a hilarious game of political Bingo. The group passed around Bingo boards that had squares filled with buzz words and phrases like “open border” and “felon,” and actions like “a candidate rolls their eyes.” Many excited students throughout the night won stickers for marking five boxes in a row, as the debate was as predictable as one could imagine. This event saw a massive turnout, with so much of Arcadia’s student body eager to gather and discuss Kamala Harris and Donald Trump’s first-ever face-to-face encounter. A similar event was, again, held in the library for the viewing of the vice presidential debate between J. D. Vance and Tim Walz hosted by CBS on October 1.
During the fourth week of October, Arcadia Votes held a “Vote Early Day” event. The group ran shuttles from Taylor Hall to the local voter services office to vote early, and they also offered a meet-up location in The Chat for students to receive mail-in ballot support, polling location details, and answers to general election questions. Then, later that same week, the First-Year Civic Scholars & Advocacy in Action class hosted a workshop in the Commons Great Room called “Get Out The Vote.” This workshop was an interactive session wherein students could have help creating their own, personal voting plan for the upcoming election– it can be exceedingly overwhelming to be a first-time voter trying to figure everything out on your own. The event had food and drinks and was aided by Commissioner Neil Makhija and the Montgomery County Voter Services team, who handed out mail-in ballots to those registered in the county.
Throughout the months preceding the election, representatives around campus held clipboards and inquired about students’ voter registration status. Some students may have found this to be an annoyance, as they might have been in a rush on their way to class or simply did not want to talk to a stranger. As someone who registered to vote a year ago and voted via mail-in ballot as early as I could, it felt futile to stop and talk to people asking about my plan to vote. However, that doesn’t make the practice of stopping students any less important– it is the truth that a lot of students didn’t have a plan or were unsure of how to register. Our community should not take for granted the resources and education at our fingertips. Bringing awareness to the importance of voting is never a bad thing– in fact, it is crucial.
Arcadia Votes offered complimentary T-shirts immediately before the election and encouraged students to wear those T-shirts on election day. Students spotted in the shirts were entered into a raffle to win one of three $50 Amazon gift cards. Arcadia Votes also ran a social media campaign where they reminded students to snap a selfie with their “I Voted” sticker and tag the @arcadiabeyondcampus account on Instagram. Shuttles on November 5 were available to transport voters registered at Arcadia’s address to the local polling place.
As this race was heavily emotionally charged, Arcadia offered post-election debrief circles, chill Bingo sessions, additional counseling drop-in sessions, and many opportunities for students to gather, decompress, and discuss the results of the election. Arcadia’s campus could not have handled this 2024 election season better, and the amount of awareness and attention brought to the importance of voting and participating in our democracy should not have been any less than it was.
