AU Student Government introduced TurboVote, an online program that offers un-registered student voters a chance to cast their ballots, to campus on Sept. 25.
TurboVote helps voters to request registration forms, absentee ballots and update voter registration status for free. TurboVote can also send updates and reminders about upcoming elections in every place where they are registered, according to its website.
SG paid $415 up front for 2,000 students to use TurboVote, according to Student Government President Emily Yu. The Washington College of Law contributed $85 as well.
Approximately 352 AU students registered with TurboVote as of Sept. 29, according to Joshua Matfess, the SG deputy director of community relations and civic engagement.
Yu first considered the program after hearing about its implementation at Georgetown University. She worked with D.C. Students Speak, an organization dedicated to the promotion of student political activism in D.C., to implement the program on campus.
“We picked this program in particular because our peer institutions showed me that this was a reliable program, and it is the only one we have found so far that sends you an absentee ballot through the mail with a return envelope,” Yu said.
“TurboVote will work well through the SG because it has an ideal relationship with the student body for explaining and implementing the program across campus,” said Sam Bernstein, an AU alum and a TurboVote partnership associate.
The feedback SG has received about TurboVote has mostly been positive, according to Yu.
“I hope that more students will have the know-how to vote, which has always been a problem of mine in the past,” said Bryn Keane-Farrell, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences. “Now that I know that TurboVote can provide me with an absentee ballot, I think I will feel more comfortable with voting.”
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