Smith Votes is a nonpartisan, student-run organization dedicated to encouraging civic engagement and higher voter turnout on Smith’s campus. The Sophian spoke with co-coordinators Emily Stanton-Paule ‘22 and Jenna Sutherland ‘23 this year and last May about their strategies.
Smith Votes appeared encouraged by their ability to function now in ways that worked well pre-pandemic. Sutherland said of this semester: “It’s good to see people.” After a year of strictly online outreach, the organization was able to table at central check-in and register five or six first year students during their first day on campus. Their first interest meeting drew 10 to 15 new recruits.
Because interest in Smith Votes peaks during presidential election years and falls in the interim years after, one of the group’s goals has been to keep student’s minds on voting in the so-called “off-season” — which is really a misnomer, considering how many elections happen outside of that for the president. One way they hope to combat this is through the creation of their regional representative positions, instated for the first time this semester. Based on data detailing where the highest concentrations of domestic Smith students are from they split the country into appropriate regions for individual representatives to take on. “They are not your typical regions … New York is its own region, California is its own region, because we have so many people there that it’s the same as combining five or six other states together,” explained Sutherland.
A regional representative will be responsible for staying up to date on state-specific voting laws, potential candidates, relevant news stories, and, in turn, distributing this information to students from their region. Because there is such a wide breadth of information to keep up with, splitting the work between representatives will allow for more effective outreach about elections that happen in between the presidential and midterms. They also want to match representatives with the areas they are from, since they are more likely to have existing knowledge concerning voting regulations and have a more vested interest in effectively distributing information. The application for these positions has already closed, but students should expect to see a roll-out of these student representatives on their social media in the coming weeks.
Additionally, National Voter Registration Day is Sept. 28, and Smith Votes plans to table in the Campus Center answering questions and registering students on TurboVote if Mountain Day doesn’t interfere. They just completed their social media campaign to inform Smithies about the recall election in California and are now anticipating upcoming gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia. The group plans to experiment with other methods of distributing information beyond social media, such as posting lists of regional representatives on different house bulletin boards.
Traditional strategies of voter engagement, like going door-to-door, distributing flyers, or tabling in the Campus Center, were not an option for Smith Votes over the past year. Their greatest challenge has been learning, “how to engage the student body when we can’t actually be around people,” said Sutherland. “In my experience, so much successful voter registration and turn-out is really physical and hard to engage with in a virtual way,” added Stanton-Paule.
One strategy was to increase their social media presence, and now with 500 plus followers on Instagram (@smithvotes), relevant information concerning upcoming elections or deadlines for requesting absentee ballots are consistently (and persistently) distributed to the Smith community.
Additionally, as a branch of the Office of Student Engagement, Smith Votes has worked to develop relationships with other offices on campus like the Wurtele and Jandon Centers to further their outreach efforts. During the 2020 presidential election they partnered with Smith Athletics to advocate for full-team registration and voter turn-out, which resulted in 100% self-reported voter participation from student athletes. “Way to go student athletes!” Sutherland said.
Sutherland expressed surprise at Smith’s support of their work, including advertisement of their group’s initiatives in the biweekly eDigest emails. “It’s nice knowing the school is behind us,” she said. Smith’s support is partially due to the organization’s bipartisan stance. “It’s hard to say no to increasing the voter effort,” added Sutherland. “No one wants to turn us down.”
They are also still waiting on data from Tufts University concerning the 2020 election, which will help them to assess the effectiveness of their voting outreach programs during that time. While it won’t be entirely demonstrative of future elections because their outreach occurred primarily online, the information will help them to reorient their strategy towards increasing their efficacy.
Whether it’s last May or this September, when asked if they want to add anything to the interview, their message hasn’t changed. First, it’s never too late to get involved in their work and second, as Stanton-Paule said: “Readers of The Sophian: everyone should vote. Smith.turbovote.org.”
If you’re interested in receiving the Smith Votes newsletter: https://forms.gle/Nz2x3oABznZh9knD9
If you have questions about voting: https://smith.turbovote.org/
