Photo by Joseph Nartey ’26
Bard College Vice President for Academic Affairs, Professor of Politics, and Director of the Bard Center for Civic Engagement (CCE) Jonathan Becker urges the state, county boards of election, and college leaders to act now to give students ballot access for the impending November 2024 elections. In 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul passed legislation that mandates polling places on college campuses with 300 or more registered voters, yet a recent study released by CCE shows a negligible change in on-campus polling sites between the November 2022 elections and the November 2023 elections. “With the March 15 deadline for poll site assignments for this fall’s national election, the time is now to make the law’s promise a reality,” he writes in a commentary for the
Times Union. He advocates for action on three levels—county boards of election should enforce the law, the state should identify means of enforcing the law, and leaders at colleges must demonstrate leadership by promoting student voter registration and, where the 300-registrant threshold is met, demanding a polling place on campus or in a suitable adjacent facility. “By acting together, we can empower youth, strengthen our democracy, and realize the promise of both this innovative New York state law and the 26th Amendment,” writes Becker.
Further reading:
College Leaders Urged to Act on Campus Voting Sites
Post Date: 02-29-2024
