MOLLY VANDENBERG
Staff Writer
Registering to vote can be an obstacle, and actually getting yourself to the polls on Election Day is the last hurdle before the finish line. It’s important for students to try to make plans ahead of time to make sure they can get to the polls next week.
Living on a college campus can make things more complicated, as many students may not have a car as readily available to them or the polling spot is not very accessible or convenient.
On Election Day, Nov. 8, Fredonia is providing transportation to students living on campus to their polling spot from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. If you are registered to vote in Chautauqua County with your residence hall address, your polling spot is the Wheelock School at 75 Chestnut St.
Fredonia is a part of the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge, which “recognizes postsecondary campuses committed to improving democratic engagement, increasing student voter participation rates, and graduating with a lifelong commitment to being informed and active citizens,” according to the ALL IN Challenge website.
In the weeks and months leading up to Election Day, ALL IN has done many things in efforts to get Fredonia students involved with the election, such as offering voter registration drives, airing the televised presidential debates in the Williams Center, bringing political guest speakers to campus and providing students with important voting registration deadlines.
Rachel LaPaglia, a committee member of the ALL IN challenge project and the assistant director of Campus Life, helps organize the campus rides to the polls.
“On Election Day … we will have the escort bus here at the Williams Center bus stop, shuttling students back and forth to Wheelock School, which is on Chestnut Street … just a few minutes from campus. This will be a free shuttle,” said LaPaglia.
She believes that it’s important to provide this opportunity to students in an effort to make the voting process easier.
“One of the main reasons why college students don’t vote is because they can’t get to the site, or because they’re here on campus but they’re registered back home and they don’t go through the absentee ballot process. We did encourage students to register here in Chautauqua County with their residence hall address. We thought that providing this transportation would hopefully get them to vote and able to vote on Election Day,” said Lapaglia.
If you are unsure of where you are registered to vote and where your polling site is, you can find your specific polling site at canivote.org.