Dom Simonetta
Contributing Writer
As college students, the voting process is fairly new and can be quite difficult. Knowing that, North Central College has started promoting a revolutionary tool called TurboVote that may just make voting a whole lot simpler.
Rob Wegley, the president of the College’s Student Governing Association, seeks to inform the student body of the benefits that TurboVote presents.
“It’s a website that allows online access to tools that help you register to vote, vote absentee, find out where voting locations are around you, get notifications when elections are coming up and pretty much simplify anything voting,” said Wegley.
Wegley continued to stress to students on campus that having easier access to registering and taking part in Election Day could make voting more interesting to students who are indecisive about getting involved in politics.
“It takes preparing to vote and breaks it down into smaller, understandable steps,” Wegley said. “For voters around our age, we’re pretty fresh on the scene. The biggest advantage is truly helping students understand where they can vote, how to do it, and obviously, most importantly, registering.”
College attendees hold a few characteristics in high regard when it comes to adopting new technologies: simplicity, functionality and convenience. While TurboVote displays each of these three qualities well, Wegley reveals the mix of initial reception from students.
“I haven’t heard anything negative about it so far and people have even sought me out to compliment it and ask further questions,” Wegley said. “At this point in time, over 120 students have registered, so it has seen some success.”
In hindsight, 120 students may look like a good number. But with over 3,000 students currently enrolled, the College is hoping for a better response in the near future.
“I think there are a few things hindering more people from signing up and utilizing the service,” said Wegley. “One is that they are not fully aware of TurboVote being available yet. We sent an email to the entire student body, but some people don’t read those or don’t read them all the way through and miss out. We definitely need to continue to put out more propaganda, if you will, to promote using it.”
“The other thing is an overall lack of political interest,” Wegley said. “When people denied signing up as we sat in WAC, most cited that they just didn’t really care about voting. I think that’s an attitude that will hopefully change over time because everyone has a voice. It’s one of the fundamental truths of our Democratic society, but people are entitled to their own beliefs.”
In preparation for the future, SGA is constantly figuring out new ways to get the word out about TurboVote’s presence.
“We are continuing to develop signage, putting up papers around campus, on social media, etc., to inform the student body of the opportunity,” said Wegley. “The idea for new students coming into the College is to make sure it’s available at orientations for them to sign up right when they get on campus. Hopefully all of that helps spread the word.”
“Our mission statement says it best,” Wegley said. “‘North Central College is a community of learners dedicated to preparing students to be informed, involved, principled and productive citizens and leaders over a lifetime.’ TurboVote is a tool that helps all of us achieve that mission.”
At first glance, TurboVote seems like an extremely useful tool if you’re a person desiring to cast votes. But just how easy is it to get involved?
“I use it personally, most of SGA and my close friends are signed up as well,” said Wegley. “All accessing TurboVote takes is following the link and taking roughly two minutes to sign up.”
See https://noctrl.turbovote.org/register for more information.
