CSRI students lead charge to increase youth voter turnout at Cornell

Three Cornell Summer Research Institute (CSRI) students are working on getting out the vote on campus.

Rising juniors Benson Fang and Savannah Sheffler, along with rising senior Hunter Holt, worked closely with Assistant Professor of American Politics Megan Goldberg to study literature about youth voter turnout and examined other successful college strategies to create a plan for Cornell.

Their big question this summer: How can we encourage Cornellians to vote?

“I’ve come up with a slogan: Ram the vote,” Sheffler said. “We’ve been trying to figure out ways to implement that on campus. It will be widespread. We want to include athletics, Greek life, STEM majors, non-STEM majors, just get everyone involved on campus.”

Goldberg says research shows that young voters are interested in politics but they turn out in lower numbers, especially compared to older voters. The CSRI group hopes their approach of involving social groups and student organizations will turn around the trend on campus.

“A lot of research shows that it’s not a lack of interest in voting, but it’s really these non-cognitive skills that students haven’t developed as much,” Goldberg said. “Going to the polls and registering to vote is a new thing, and they aren’t familiar with the process. We’re hoping our plans around organizing will make it more of a social experience, and it will lessen the anxiety of going through these processes for the first time.”

Each team member played a part in the research, including branding, creating website content, planning events, and contacting student groups.

“As the only student of color in the group, during our research, we found that there was a large racial turnout gap on Cornell’s campus. Part of the way that could be addressed is by reaching out to the Intercultural Life Office clubs like Gente and BACO to close the gap, which would both increase student turnout and make elections more equitable,” Fang said.

Background:

Goldberg said the idea behind this project started during her Second-Year Seminar course, Bottom-up Democracy: Organizing in State and Local Politics, during the fall of 2022. 

During the course, students focused on voter registration and getting more students interested in politics. They registered almost 150 new voters on campus and found a lot of success, but Goldberg thought the eight weeks of CSRI would be a great time to expand on their progress. 

“I thought CSRI would be a really good opportunity to bring in some of the students, two of them from that SYS class, to really focus on what they learned during that course, the lessons and mistakes we made, to combine it with the deeper dive of the research and make a plan for what we thought would be most effective in its next iteration in the 2024 presidential election,” Goldberg said.

The Plan:

The CSRI group has a lot of goals. They want to touch base with every single Cornell College student about the importance of voting, they plan to hold a voter registration day during New Student Orientation this year, organize an event for students to get involved in the upcoming Mount Vernon city elections, and find ways to encourage students to get involved in the January caucuses. 

“The caucuses are sort of up in the air right now, especially if you are a Democrat, but for Republican students, we want to make sure that they are registered and can participate in the caucus if they want to in January,” Goldberg said. “That’s the other reason we think rolling out some of these initiatives this year, particularly in Iowa, are really important, so students can participate in that process.”

Why it’s important:

Holt, a politics major, says it has been fun to see their research go from the literature review and brainstorming stage to a plan of action.

“You can actually see things coming out of it and actual change that is going to occur on campus. And to know that in large part is due to us–I think that’s a pretty cool thing,” Holt said.

These students want all Cornell students to “Ram the vote” and let their voices be heard.

“We want students to develop a lifelong habit of voting as well as to increase youth representation,” Fang said.

“We have this untapped power with our generation,” Sheffler added. “That’s why it’s important to vote now. You are creating that foundation and continuing it after you graduate.”