Campus Life and Campus Union host a competition to get students excited about voting
On Oct. 20, with Election Day approaching, the Wofford Votes Social Media competition began on campus. The Office of Campus Life and Student Development, in partnership with Campus Union, launched the competition for student organizations on campuses as a way to get students excited about voting in the presidential election.
The competition was planned by Sadie Fink ‘21 and Allen Lollis, associate director of Residence Life and Community Standards. Campus Union is funding the prizes for and keeping track of the points earned by each organization that participates.
Fink and Lollis wanted to launch the competition so that students recognize and use the power of their votes. Fink said “our generation is the largest voting bloc in this election and has considerable power in the election.”
“With the pandemic, more students are voting early in person and by mail than ever before, so we wanted to help students access reliable information on how to, where to and when to vote,” Fink explained.
Fink said, “Wofford Votes originated back in 2016 when there was a competition amongst the SoCon schools to increase voter participation. This year, nothing had been planned, so Mr. Lollis and I got together to plan this competition as a fun and incentivized way to increase participation on campus.”
The 2016 Wofford Votes initiative improved student participation in the political process. 83% of Wofford students registered to vote and of those, 60.7% of students voted. The total voting rate for Wofford students was 50.4%, which was in line with national averages for universities and colleges in the US.
During the 2016 presidential elec- tion, the national voting rate for people between 18 and 24 was 39%, according to the US Census Bureau. The hope is that having this competition for the 2020 president election will result in the same increase in Wofford student voting as it did in 2016.
“The goal of the competition is to get students excited about voting,” Fink said. “By holding it on social media, we hope that students will have unprecedented access to reliable voting information at their fingertips and will be excited to exercise their right to vote.”
The competition is points based, awarding student organizations various amounts of points for activities including following the Office of Campus Life and Student Development on Instagram, posting voter information to their Instagram accounts and post- ing pictures of members of the organization exercising their constitutional right of voting.
The organization who wins first place will receive a $100 gift card to Sidewall Pizza, masks with the organization’s logo on them and an article about the organization in the Old Gold and Black. The second place prize is $50 to Sidewall Pizza. The three organizations with the most points will all be recognized as the winning organizations in Conquer and Prevail.
Today, Nov. 3 is the last day to vote in the presidential election and to participate in this competition. The winners of the contest will be announced Nov. 4.
Drew Reynolds ‘21, Campus Union president, said “With this election being of paramount importance I think every student, regardless of political opinions, can see importance in voting this year and can see the value in competitions such as this.”
