It’s an unusually warm morning in November, and the picnic tables outside Vassar’s College Center are filled with students. Junior Mariya Novostad says there’s a lot going on this time of year — projects and exams are stacking up, and the holidays are just around the corner — but for the past few weeks, she’s been working to make sure students don’t forget to vote.
Novostad leads a student group called “Vassar Votes,” which has been helping students register and make plans for Election Day.
“Voting is complicated," she notes. "Vassar Votes works to be a resource that is able to alleviate some of that anxiety.”
This year, students will be able to vote for president on campus for the first time. In 2022, New York passed a law requiring Boards of Election to open poll sites on or near qualifying campuses. Voting groups later won a lawsuit granting one at Vassar’s “Aula” building next to the College Center. As Novostad and I walk over, crews begin rolling large bins marked “Dominion Voting Systems” into the side entrance.
Despite the 2022 law, sites like the Aula are still rare. An analysis by the New York Public Interest Research Group identified 20 four-year colleges in New York with more than 1,000 full-time students, on-campus housing, and no poll site within a mile’s radius.
“It appears that there’s been very little change in whether or not a college has a polling place or not, even after the law went into effect," says NYPIRG Executive Director Blair Horner. "And so we’re hoping that the findings that we have will stimulate the legislator and the governor’s office to get to the bottom of why.”
The state Board of Elections has pushed back on this analysis. In a statement, a spokesperson for the Board of Elections says none of the colleges listed by NYPIRG meet the requirements for a poll site. The 2022 law only applies to campuses with at least 300 locally-registered voters.
Horner maintains the NYPIRG analysis makes “reasonable assumptions” about campus’ qualifications. But counting student voters is difficult. Jonathan Becker, director of the Center for Civic Engagement at nearby Bard College, says colleges don’t often track this information, and boards of election aren’t often willing or able to share it.
“Boards of elections are sometimes hesitant to provide this information, or aren’t structured in such a way that they can readily provide this information, because it’s often linked to a variety of mailing addresses," says Becker. "We at Bard are fortunate in that, after federal litigation, we have one mailing address, which is 30 Campus Road. But others are not so fortunate.”
Bard College began on-campus voting in 2020, after a decades-long legal battle with the Dutchess County Board of Elections. That fight is the subject of a new short film, called “A Poll to Call Our Own,” that the college is debuting coinciding with the election.
Becker says it starts with a familiar story: students at Bard were struggling to access a designated poll site roughly a mile away, at a local church. The private college repeatedly tried to establish an on-campus location, only to have it blocked multiple times. In 2012, Republican Elections Commissioner Erik Haight rejected voter registration forms from students at Bard and two other schools for not listing their specific dorms in their campus addresses. That prompted another lawsuit — which Bard won — because, as Becker notes, students change their dorm rooms all the time.
“To demand that they put their dorm room down, and then repeat their dorm room when they’re voting proper is impractical," he explains. "And it’s disenfranchising them.”
In 2022, Vassar’s campus had the added obstacle of being split into three separate voting districts. The state’s new campus voting law now prohibits colleges from being split into multiple districts, but Becker says this practice continues to impact colleges in other states.
Becker sees the 2022 law as a win for college students in New York — but only if it’s effectively carried out. The Center for Civic Engagement did its own analysis earlier this year, and found only three colleges have added on-campus poll sites since 2022, including Vassar.
“To realize the full promise of the legislation, I think you need three things," says Becker. "You need a change in how the number of registered voters is reported. You need cooperation from local boards of election. And you need institutions to take their role as civic actors more seriously, so they’re really reaching out and helping students to register to vote.”
Becker notes this isn’t just a government problem: some colleges take registering students more seriously than others. He says universities are obliged to put forth a “good faith effort” to inform students how to register and vote, but there’s a lot of reasons why a school might do the bare minimum. Town-gown relations can be part of it, and he says some colleges worry their students will ruffle local elections.
Wesley Dixon, deputy to the president at Vassar, sees on-campus voting as crucial to the college’s history and mission. He says Vassar staff are working closely with the county Board of Elections and Campus Safety to make sure Tuesday runs smoothly. Before and after Election Day, the Office of Residential Life is hosting group circles where students can debrief their emotions around voting.
“We recognize that students of all backgrounds might have a variety of feelings about the election," he notes. "So having those spaces after the election allows us some opportunity for some thoughtful reflection, sharing of opinions in a really controlled and meaningful, productive way.”
Senior Sophia Henderson says she plans to vote in person at the Aula. She’s excited: it’ll be her first time voting in a general election. She decided to register locally through Vassar Votes, rather than in her hometown in South Carolina, because she feels the races here are more competitive — and after almost four years, Vassar has begun to feel like home. She’s particularly interested in the House race between 18th District Congressman Pat Ryan and Republican Alison Esposito.
“I know that becoming familiar with the politics in an area you’re not from can be a little daunting," says Henderson. "But it’s been nice to talk to people who are familiar with the politics here and just get a general vibe, instead of just seeing ads online and not even knowing who the people are…It’s interesting, to be in a new political environment — and voting in it, too.”
Early voting ends Sunday. Election Day is November 5. By way of disclosure, Vassar College is home to WAMC’s Hudson Valley Bureau.
