MINNEAPOLIS — At the University of Minnesota, student and city leaders are trying to get more young people not only to register but also to vote early – and they're doing so college-style.
All week, the Minnesota Student Association's Row the Vote team hosted a "party to the polls," offering free limo and party bus rides from campus to the Early Vote Center in downtown Minneapolis.
"The whole idea was … to try and make democracy accessible and make electoral participation something that was easy and fun," Row the Vote director Carter Yost said. "What better way to do that than to grab a bunch of college students and throw them in a party bus or a limousine?"
To wrap up the week, on what is dubbed Vote Early Day, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, Minneapolis Regional Chamber vice president Grace Waltz, and T.C. the Twins mascot came to campus Friday to encourage and inform students.
"We already have a bunch of early voting locations that are going to be around the city going up to November 7th," Mayor Frey said.
Senior Connor Wells stopped by a registration table outside Northrop Hall. A psychology and sociology of law student, Wells transferred from Colorado and is new to Minnesota.
"It's important because there's the idea of, well, if something doesn't affect me, do I really need to vote? But I think that is in a sense, like for me, a privilege," he said. "It does very very much impact the direct day-to-day life of people."
Student body president Flora Yang says the Row the Vote initiative is paying off, as around 7,000 students have pledged to vote and almost half that number are registered so far. That's out of approximately 51,000 total students.
"There's a common misconception that young people, especially college students, we just don't care about politics right? But I think the 3,000 student registration forms that were filled out just in these past couple weeks is proof that that's not true," Yang said.
According to the Institute for Democracy and Higher Education, nationally, college voter turnout more than doubled from 19% in 2014 to 40 % in 2018. Young voters had record turnout in 2020, though it was a presidential election year.
"I would say one of the main things is tuition," political science student Yusra Hassan said. "Cost of tuition impacts us directly."
Anyone who can vote in Minneapolis is eligible to vote early. The Early Vote Center located at 980 E. Hennepin Ave and officials recently extended its hours.
Meanwhile, electric scooter company LIME is giving users two free rides so they can get to and from the polls on November 8th and during the ongoing early voting period. Download the app and use the code on your screen and that's all you need to get going.
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