This November, many Virginians will have the opportunity to vote for their preferred gubernatorial, lieutenant governor and attorney general candidates, among others. In order to encourage Longwood University students to register to vote for this year’s election, the Student Government Association (SGA) and Virginia 21 chapter have joined forces to promote the use of the online registration tool TurboVote.
TurboVote provides individuals with deadline information, as well as pre-stamped envelopes to allow for an efficient registration or absentee voting process. TurboVote’s website says the tool makes voting “as awesome as renting a DVD from Netflix.”
The SGA gave students the option to sign up for TurboVote on iPads at the Sept. 17 Volunteer and Involvement Fair. Students can access TurboVote on MyLongwood or at https:// lancers.turbovote.org as well.
SGA President Haley Vest and Dr. Tim Pierson, vice president for Student Affairs and SGA adviser, began discussing the benefits of TurboVote this summer with Virginia 21. The SGA and Virginia 21 are funding the registration tool for university students, faculty and staff. Vest hopes to see 1,000 students register to vote with TurboVote this year.
Vest said TurboVote is one of the “bigger ticket items” she has in mind to “get Longwood involved with the greater scheme of student issues.”
If students are already registered to vote, they can still sign up via TurboVote to sign up for absentee voting and get email and text message voting day and place reminders. Vest added, “It really kind of takes the confusion of the process and puts it on interfaces that we, as students, are really good at using; basically, text and email.”
Pierson agreed, noting a major draw of TurboVote is that it allows voter registration to be an “easier process than going to the courthouse and typing it up.”
Other Virginia universities are using TurboVote as well, including Radford University, the College of William and Mary, University of Virginia, University of Mary Washington and Virginia
Tech. Vest and the other Virginia university SGA presidents have the goal of registering 40,000 students through TurboVote total.
“Forty-thousand students, with how close Virginia usually is with gubernatorial elections, can really turn the tide of an election, so this gives students the chance to vote and really get someone elected who listens to our issues,” Vest said.
There is a friendly TurboVote competition between the universities. The school who registers the most people through TurboVote will see a photo of their SGA shirts on the Senates at all of the other Virginia TurboVote schools. Vest said it is a plus that Longwood was the first school to implement TurboVote on campus.
Also regarding the importance of voting, Pierson said, “As a citizen, the ability to exercise your voice and your vote is a basic democratic principle that we can’t take for granted. It’s a foundational aspect of our society and the principles that we are based on as a country.”
