Oklahoma Votes set up tents around campus Tuesday to encourage students to register to vote as part of National Voter Registration Day.
Oklahoma Votes is a nonpartisan student-led group created to boost civic engagement and emphasize the importance of voting. The organization also assists students in receiving and filling out absentee ballots, finding polling places or filling out in-person forms.
Oklahoma Votes is affiliated with the Carl Albert Center, which emphasizes civic engagement in students.
Liza Inbody, public relations chair for Oklahoma Votes, said the 18-29 age demographic is the lowest in voter turnout and civic engagement.
Institutional barriers and a lack of mistrust in the political process may contribute to Oklahoma’s low turnout, according to Inbody. She said because Oklahoma has consistently voted for Republican candidates, some people may not feel the need to vote for their political party.
“Your vote can sway any election, especially state elections,” Inbody said. “Just students at OU can sway elections to another side.”
Randi Wright, civic engagement fellow for Oklahoma Votes, said some events emphasize the importance of getting students civically engaged, not just by voting. Those events include speaking with the football team and hosting election watch parties.
“What we do is we try to register as many people as possible,” Wright said. “We’ve done some fun stuff to get to that, as in competing with Texas — a rivalry type situation.”
Oklahoma Votes will be stationed from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on the South Oval, the Oklahoma Memorial Union courtyard and the OU Food Pantry.
This story was edited by Natalie Armour, Ana Barboza and Thomas Pablo. Larkin Bock and Avery Avery copy edited this story.
