Ball State University is joining an initiative to increase voter registration and election participation among college students.  As IPR’s Stephanie Wiechmann reports, the “Cardinals Vote!” campaign will include online and in-person education.

David Roof with the Center for Economic and Civic Learning says Ball State students as a whole have higher civic engagement than the general public.  But that’s not the data driving this new effort.

“There was a national study that was released, and Indiana has one of the lowest 18-24 year-old voter turnout numbers in the country.  And some states outpace us by more than double.”

One key component of “Cardinals Vote!” is students hearing about civic participation from other students. The project has named five “Democracy Fellows” who will visit classes and help with events to encourage their peers to vote.

One of the five fellows is Abigail Denault.  She says there’s a failure of students to realize that local elections impact them greatly.

“Of course, national will impact you and you’re going to see those effects.  You can hear people directly say ‘Oh, I wish this was changed.’  Well, there’s avenues to do that through your power structure of voting.”

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Fellow fellow Deborah Edwards says the momentum of young voters sends a message.

“If enough of us vote, we can make a difference.  Not just in terms of who wins, but in terms of making sure that our voices are heard, and that politicians – whoever our representatives are – that they make it a point to have our interests as also their interests.”

An online hub will also help with the practical questions – what documents do I need to register to vote?  How can I vote absentee from Indiana or a different state?  How do I find out where in Muncie to cast my ballot?

Abby Haworth, Director of Student Life at Ball State says the site will be filled with many different resources.

“We know that we’re not just serving Indiana students, but out-of-state students, too.  So, we try to get really specific as far as finding opportunities for them to search and kind of see where they need to go in order to vote or get registered to vote.”

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Campaigns like “Cardinals Vote!” are important to civic organizations like the League of Women Voters.  That’s because, as President Linda Hanson says, young voters are important.

“If we get young people started voting, and recognizing they have a civic role and a civic responsibility, then they build habits of voting.”

“Cardinals Vote!” is part of a statewide initiative from Community-Engaged Alliance, which provided a grant to help fund the Ball State effort.

Stephanie Wiechmann is our Managing Editor and “All Things Considered” Host.  Contact her at slwiechmann@bsu.edu.