by Madelyn Smith
TurboVote wants voting to be easy for Americans and as “awesome as renting a DVD from Netflix,” it says on its website.
In August, Elon University supported this initiative and announced a partnership with the voter registration nonprofit to help ease the voting process for students.
Since then, 1003 people registered to vote through TurboVote at Elon, and there were a total of 1168 ballot requests from people ages 18 to 65.
North Carolina, Virginia and New Jersey were among the top states represented in Elon’s ballot requests and registration sign-ups through TurboVote.
The site’s usability certainly contributed to its success at Elon.
“It’s easy to use,” said Sharon Spray, chair of Elon’s political science department. “Especially for students who want to register to vote and participate in voting in a state other than NC.”
Many students in Elon’s large out-of-state population appreciated the opportunity to streamline the voting process.
Jessica Simermeyer, a senior from Finksburg, MD, had registered three years ago after her 18th birthday and did not plan on making the drive home to vote this year.
“All I had to do was log on and request an absentee form,” she said. “Then when I got the form in the mail, I signed off and sent it back. It was very convenient.”
Katie Hadobas, a junior from Fort Worth, TX, said she heard abo
ut TurboVote from an informative email sent by Smith Jackson, Vice President for Student Life. She said signing up for the service took her less than 30 minutes to complete.
“I registered one or two weeks ago,” she said. “I liked it because it’s really simple and it does the busy work for you and cuts down on time.”
Some students like Ryan Vet, a senior from Cary, N.C., experienced a few hiccups during the registration process. He said the directions were occasionally unclear.
“I put my campus box as my current mailing address, thinking it would register me in Elon,” he said. “But I was actually registered in Cary because I put that as my permanent address.”
Vet also said once he was registered to vote, he was inundated with the voting reminder communication TurboVote sent him, including texts and emails.
“They over-communicated a bit, he said. “So I didn’t want to act at times.”
Spray said some students like the simple interface of the website but said it was missing additional bits of information about different candidates.
“But that’s not the purpose of the site,” she said. TurboVote’s FAQ section says its main purpose is to assist with first-time and updated voter registration, absentee ballot submissions and voting reminders in the weeks and days leading up to the elections.
Despite some room for user error with the website’s instructions, Vet said the service is viable and an ideal tool for students to easily register.
“It’s still a good idea and I’ll still vote,” he said. “I’d recommend anything that gets people to vote.”
Madelyn Smith 