SGA helps students register to vote

As midterms approach this year, a North Central College student organization is taking a stand by helping a new generation of voters register in time for the November elections.  

NCC’s Student Governing Association (SGA) has taken up the Turbovote Challenge this year. The Challenge, according to their website, has a goal to “help America reach 80 percent voter turnout by 2024.”

SGA President Ivan Bohorquez explained, “Turbovote is an easy app for, not only students here, but [students]nationwide to get registered to vote, get out to the polls, and vote.” 

To kick off the challenge, officers of SGA spent Constitution Day outside of Wentz Science Center and Kaufman Dining Hall. There, students were able to register to vote in less than two minutes.

“It was quick enough that they didn’t need to skip class and easy enough that they could still get to class [on time],” Bohorquez added.

Secretary Kimmy Duong said the process served as a great way to have students become civically engaged in the community.

“It’s important for students to have a say in voting and understand it. It is our society and they should have a say in what is the best and who they should elect for that,” Duong said.

Joseph Tocki, treasurer of SGA, added, “And it was pretty easy to get students to come over; everyone really liked it.”

However, registering eligible voters is only half the battle. 

Members of the Democratic Party, specifically, are pushing for young voters to head to the polls, as this year’s midterms are particularly important; many wonder if the House of Representatives will flip from Republican control to Democratic control.

The issue, as NPR and Pew Research statistics indicate, is that while the millennial generation makes up approximately 31 percent of the electorate, they also happen to be the generation with the lowest voter turnout. 

Turbovote allows people to sign up for alerts about upcoming local, state and national elections, locations citizens can vote at and even when they can vote.

Currently, SGA has no plans to make the Turbovote Challenge on campus a long-term event, but, as Tocki explained, “After students sign up, they will always get emails about elections in the future, so they will always be part of Turbovote. For us, we are pushing students just for this November election, but for everyone else, this is a long-term thing.”  

“We want students to be able to have the resources they need to go out and vote,” Bohorquez added. “With the generation now, we have all the resources we need to know about voting; we have a phone, we have Google, we have search engines to find out the process about voting and the requirements. We hope that if students don’t do that, we can be here to help them and their transition from college into ‘real life.’” 

SGA will be out again Sept. 25, on National Registration Day, from 12-3 p.m. outside of Wentz Science Center and from 3-5 p.m. in front of Kaufman. They will have laptops so students who aren’t registered to vote can register, and those who are registered can sign up for Turbovote.