Student organizations have spent countless hours providing students with opportunities to get more involved with the upcoming election. Sean Slatzer, a junior studying political science, is the president of one of these groups on campus: Ohio University College Democrats.
“Getting younger people to vote is our big thing, and also educating them on the issues because most people our age don’t know about a lot of issues and what we’re even voting for,” Slatzer said.
Previous events hosted by the organization have included canvassing, voter registration, letter writing and phone banking. Their primary goal of voter education will culminate in the group’s final meeting before Election Day, an educational session that will give young voters a chance to learn about the different issues and candidates on this year’s ballots.
A similar event, called “Know yOUr Vote,” was recently hosted by the OU chapter of BridgeUSA in partnership with the Athens League of Women Voters following the first presidential debate in September.
“BridgeUSA is an international organization that fights polarization by encouraging civil and respectful discourse on divisive topics across party lines,” Cayla Otto, a sophomore studying environmental studies, said.
Otto founded the chapter during her freshman year and served as president until the organization disbanded in mid-October.
“I’m actually kind of encouraged by not seeing a really intense need for the BridgeUSA club on our campus,” Otto said. “The way that my vice president and I see it, there’s a really good culture of conversation here at OU already.”
However, Otto also believes there are still gaps to fill in the political conversations held across campus.
“I think we’d like to see more space open for conservative views because we’re a pretty liberal school and maybe some people aren’t speaking out on that side,” she said.
An integral part of OU’s non-partisan conversation culture is The New Political, an independent publication that focuses on local, state and national politics. Rachel Yount is a junior studying journalism, as well as the managing editor of TNP.
“Our main priority is informing people or creating that dialogue and getting more conversation started about these topics,” Yount said.
Although TNP is a digital-first publication, they publish multiple print projects a year with the first one of the semester hitting newsstands Friday.
“We wanted to get it in newsstands a little bit before the election and it just focuses on the election,” Yount said. “There’s a news story about political violence and the history of that, there’s some opinions on things like the electoral college and certain thoughts about certain candidates.”
In addition to their first print of the year, TNP has been hosting debate watch parties in collaboration with Ohio Involvement and plans on hosting another event as results filter in Nov. 5.
“We’re just going to be waiting and seeing what happens if there is any chaos after this election, depending on who wins and stuff like that,” Yount said. “We’re just going to be very prepared for whatever we need to write about next or have opinions on next.”
Before disbanding, BridgeUSA’s national team anticipated conflict to follow either outcome of the presidential election. According to Otto, in case of the threat of violence, the organization is set to come together to provide support across chapters by teaching rapid response moderation, a framework designed to help “sort out our thoughts and feelings in a more controlled and respectful environment.”
Slatzer has been preparing for the election by encouraging members of OU College Democrats to “stay as emotionally grounded as possible.” He also hopes people focus their attention on local issues as the election draws closer.
“A lot of people don’t know about a lot of local issues, like the library levy and stuff like that,” he said. “If I can focus on one thing it would definitely be everything besides the presidential election because everybody knows who they’re voting for by now.”
Slatzer hopes young voters continue researching and don’t solely rely on the inclusion of a candidate’s affiliated party on this year’s ballot to inform their votes, and Yount hopes people “use their voices and … the outcome of this election is reflective of that.”
