Mesa Community College holds event to help reduce barriers in student voting
Mesa Community College held a Arizona Student Voting Summit on Sept. 26 to help reduce barriers in student voting and empower students with the information they need to register and vote.
The day-long Student Voting Summit event occurred on MCC’s Southern and Dobson campus within the Navajo Room, and included networking opportunities, presentations from Arizona civic engagement organizations, panels and even a scholarship contest.
The free event was held under the Campus Vote Project, which has been working to normalize and institutionalize student voting by working directly with colleges and universities across the country since 2012
The event welcomed all Maricopa students and mainly took place in MCC’s navajo room where many tables with free tote bags and chocolates were set up for guests. Students could also sign up for free headshots upon arrival for personal professional use.
The event also provided a voter information table with many guides, packets, and scannable QR code to check your Arizona voter registration status.
A free spread of food provided by Green Corner restaurant was also available for students during a lunch break that occurred at 1:00 p.m.
Students broke out into breakout sessions in classrooms around campus where networks spoke and hoped to motivate student voters for the upcoming election.
One of these networks was the Students Learn, Students Vote coalition, which is made up of campus, nonprofit, community, student, and philanthropic leaders, all working together to grow the student vote.
“People care a lot about the issues, and they want to be able to make a difference. And sometimes they might just not connect that fully to voting, or they might think that voting is just a little too complicated. So events like this are great because we have people really sharing those best practices. That’s the best way to reach people and the easiest ways for them to be able to convince people to cast their ballot this year,” stated Eddy Zerbe, member of Students Learn, Students Vote.
Zerbe led the Students Learn, Students Vote breakout session where students learned more about registering to vote, participated in group activities, and began open discussions in topics such as sharing if anyone in their lives are disillusioned with the November election.
The event worked in collaboration with MCC’s Center for Community and Civic Engagement. Program Coordinator Alejandra Maya spoke on why holding a student voting event on a community college campus was an important decision.
“These events typically happen at these four-year institutions. So, it is essential if we can make it happen here at one of the Maricopa Community Colleges, then we should be doing so. And for that, the Center for Community and Civic Engagement is always looking for a way to create spaces for students to become informed voters and community leaders,” stated Maya.
Maya mentioned that this is an event being brought back from the Campus Vote Project and they hope to do it every year at different campuses across the state.
