Photo by Danielle DeAngelis
Ramapo’s Civic and Community Engagement Center (CCEC) recruited students with a row of tables and posters on Laurel Hall’s basketball courts. The mission? Getting as many college students on campus to register to vote on National Voter Registration Day, Sept. 24.
The voting registration event, annually held by CCEC and Ramapo’s Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) program, was created with the intention to teach students about voting as well as to get more to vote in order to bring up young adult poll numbers.
According to information provided at the event CCEC, the event is held every year because they believe it “helps students learn about the historic process of voting and how they can make a difference with civic leadership.”
Lines of students eagerly filled out voter registration alongside student volunteers – there to guide them in this process.
Karen Booth, the Assistant Director of CCEC, as well as coordinator Jack Nesmith, were in attendance. They watched the ideal vision of student registration forms piling up become a reality.
Paulina Rusinek, treasurer of EOF’s executive board, states that it is important for the EOF program to be a participant of events involving student voter registration because voting is an “advocacy effort that can affect the EOF program, Ramapo students, our state, and even our country.”
The event provided food and refreshments for all students that volunteered or registered to vote. There was also a variety of games and souvenirs for attendees to be entertained by.
The Andrew Goodman Foundation organized a list of statistics regarding Ramapo’s voter registrations in comparison to other colleges. In 2018, the percentage of Ramapo students that have registered to vote was 45%, which is nearly six percent higher than the national average.
In addition to this, our own campus’ registration rates have risen 20% in four years. The voting rate of registered students has increased about 25% and the voting rate in general grazed a 30% increase. All these statistics were provided by the Andrew Goodman Foundation as well.
Accompanying the Ramapo statistics, CCEC provided an abundance of flyers and posters regarding information of New Jersey voting statistics, as well as information for the state’s upcoming election.
Ramapo’s campus is statewide, as there are students from all 40 New Jersey legislative districts. It is important for on-campus organizations to recruit Ramapo students, as our campus truly represents all portions of the state of New Jersey.
ddeange1@ramapo.edu
