Story by Kayla Walker
Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett is inviting Middle Tennessee State University students to participate in the 2022 College Voter Registration Competition during National Voter Registration Month.
MTSU’s American Democracy Project chapter is working to encourage students to register. Tents on campus will be manned by volunteers to help to spread the word about the importance of voting.
“To get students registered, I think it helps to have a lot of people out here asking every student,” said club secretary for the American Democracy Project, Kayla Jenkins. “We are making it a top priority to speak to everyone on campus so they can get registered. I also think making the vibes nice by having the music playing creates a party atmosphere which will help draw people in because voting can seem boring but we want to show people that it’s fun.”
The College Voter Registration Competition will begin Sept. 1 and end Sept. 30. Points are earned by participating schools using the secretary of state’s website for students to register to vote.
The competition launched in 2015. Colleges and universities across Tennessee earn points by creating campus campaigns, social media promotions using #GoVoteTN and campus voting hashtags to encourage students to register to vote.
“We have a couple campus hashtags, #MTSUvotes and #TrueBlueVoter,” said Kayla Jenkins. We like to use them as much as we can so that it makes it easier for us to see what’s going on, on campus civilly, but we’re totally involved in social media and campaigns.”
Middle Tennessee, Northeast State Community College and Cason-Newman University were the winners of the 2019 Tennessee College Voter Registration Competition. Out of 48 participating schools, MTSU was presented with the top award and encouraged 381 new voters.
Schools will compete in three categories: 4-year public schools, 2 -year public schools and private schools. The competition is scored based on social media engagement, creative campaigns and the number of students registered.
The American Democracy Project was established in 2003 where chapters were created within nearly 300 colleges and universities. The nonpartisan civic engagement club helps incoming generations to be engaged and educated in the civil society.
MTSU’s chapter will have tents set up outside of the Honors building until Oct. 6, Monday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.
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