College students fight barriers to casting ballots as early voting begins

Students at Fayetteville State University vote in March 2020 in Fayetteville, N.C. This year is the first general election in which North Carolinians must provide identification to vote. (Melissa Sue Gerrits/)

In the final weeks of the presidential campaign, each side is scouring swing states to get as many voters as possible, including on college campuses. But in some of those crucial states, students face new barriers to casting their ballots.

North Carolina election officials are for the first time enforcing a 2018 voter ID law in a general election this November, following court entanglements that had put the law on hold. Universities throughout the state have already been working to ensure students who want to vote have identification, but students in recent weeks found out they can't use the ubiquitous digital college IDs stored on their cellphones.

In states such as Arizona , Indiana and Texas , students have expressed concern over a lack of polling places on college campuses.

And in Georgia, officials at Emory University in Atlanta mistakenly gave students incorrect guidance on which campus address to provide on voter registration forms, opening the students up to having their registrations challenged when voting.

Nearly 41 million Generation Z Americans are eligible to vote in November's election, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, a research organization known as CIRCLE that focuses on young people. That large voting bloc could make the difference in an election that will likely be determined by small margins.

But voting laws differ by state, and access varies from campus to campus for the roughly 18 million students in undergraduate and graduate programs. Add the complexity of last-minute changes to election laws, including an increasing number of states implementing voter ID, and that confusion can hurt participation, said Alberto Medina, a spokesperson for CIRCLE, which is housed at Tufts University.

"It's not a matter of apathy when youth turnout is low," he said. "There's this perception that voting is easy and it's straightforward and everyone should be able to figure out how to do it. And that's not the case."

Participation skyrocketed to 50% in the 2020 presidential election among voters who are between 18 and 29, up 11 percentage points from the 2016 presidential election, according to a CIRCLE analysis .

But the center's polling shows that young people still face "formidable structural barriers" to participating in the democratic process, including a lack of civic education, neglect by political parties and candidates, and complicated logistics such as not knowing how to register, missing deadlines or even finding transportation to a polling place.

Complications over voter ID in North Carolina showcases some of these barriers, Medina said.

North Carolina confusion

Last month, the North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled that the digital photo ID produced by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "or any other 'image of a photo ID, either as a photocopy or a photo on a mobile device,'" was not an acceptable form of ID to vote .

A ruling so late in the election season sent a wave of confusion throughout the state, as colleges that only use digital IDs had to quickly notify students of the rules change and offer physical ID cards.

To comply with the 2018 voter ID law, which went into effect in the past year after a prolonged legal battle, campuses already were trying to spread the word and offering free physical IDs. The court ruling increased the urgency.

At Elon University, a private college 30 minutes east of Greensboro, student leaders have put up yard signs and posters, and talked to classes, sororities and fraternities about how to secure a free physical student ID that complies with the state's election law.

Bo Dalrymple, a student coordinator for the nonpartisan civic engagement campus group Elon Votes! , said the messaging campaign was needed since many students are from out of state and don't have North Carolina driver's licenses. In most states, students can usually choose whether to vote in their hometown or at their universities, depending on residency requirements.

"There's a lot of confusion, there's a lot of speculation or things that you hear," said Dalrymple, a senior political science and international and global studies double major, who is from North Carolina. "One of our biggest jobs is just cutting through the noise and make sure that these students are informed with the correct policies and the correct rules."

But other college students in North Carolina feel the change in the voter ID law was clear.

"It won't cause any significant issues," said Matthew Trott, president of the UNC College Republicans and a native North Carolinian. "I honestly don't think it's as big as an issue as it has been made to seem."

Trott, who is a junior political science and public policy double major at Chapel Hill, said he has not heard any concerns from his friends or members of the College Republicans about needing to secure a physical student ID to vote; most of them are just using their North Carolina driver's licenses.

Earlier this month, the university posted guidance on the new law, pointing out that students can obtain a physical student ID, known on campus as a UNC One Card, for free. It also directed students to the North Carolina State Board of Elections website, which lists by college what sort of IDs are approved for voting.

In the coming days, Trott said, he plans to post on social media to explain the early voting period and the voter ID requirements. He has heard some confusion around the process of requesting absentee ballots, which he'll also try to address.

He's broached some of these issues with students at tailgates for former President Donald Trump's campaign before the university's home football games this season, which have added a lot of excitement on campus, he added.

More enthusiasm nationwide

That civic excitement is seen in polls. A recent survey from the Harvard Kennedy School showed 56% of young people ages 19 to 29 "definitely" plan to vote, with more enthusiasm coming from Democrats than Republicans. The percentage of expected young voters has increased by 3 percentage points since Harvard's spring poll, an increase that pollsters tie to Vice President Kamala Harris entering the race.

Harris has a 23-point lead over Trump among registered young people, according to the Harvard poll.

Enthusiasm is palpable at Arizona State University, said Katie Ritchie, a sophomore public policy and economics double major.

"Presidential campaign messaging toward young people on college campuses like ASU that are so large has been pretty strong," she said, adding that down-ballot initiatives and races, such as an Arizona ballot question that would enshrine abortion rights in the state constitution, have also added to enthusiasm.

Ritchie and Dalrymple, at Elon University, are student ambassadors for the Andrew Goodman Foundation, a nonpartisan group that promotes civic engagement efforts on their college campuses. The foundation has ambassadors on 66 campuses across 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Arizona State University is one of 150 universities in battleground states that the Harris campaign has targeted to mobilize Gen Z voters. Recently, cast members from "Grey's Anatomy" spoke on the Harris campaign's behalf on campus. Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kari Lake and conservative media personality Charlie Kirk also have held events for Trump at fraternities.

At the University of Arizona in Tucson, students have complained there won't be a vote center on campus on Election Day. Though the nearest vote center will be just off campus — only 800 feet from the campus's Old Main building — some students worried it could dampen turnout.

While the University of Arizona won't have a vote center on campus for Election Day, Arizona State University will have one at the fitness center on the Tempe campus, along with ones on the school's three other campuses. Big signs are already posted outside the fitness center, encouraging students to vote early.

There also have been disputes over putting polling places on college campuses in other states, including Texas, which has a tight U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Ted Cruz and Democratic U.S. Rep. Colin Allred.

Last month, the Tarrant County Commissioners Court rejected a GOP proposal to eliminate college early voting sites, including one at the University of Texas at Arlington.

"They are trying to silence the voice of those most marginalized communities, like young people," said Claudia Yoli Ferla, executive director of MOVE Texas, a San Antonio-based advocacy group that fought to keep the polling place open on the campus of more than 27,000 undergraduates.

Barriers for college students are not new, said Rashawn Davis, executive director of the Andrew Goodman Foundation. Every state has work to do to make voting more inclusive for young people, he added. But he's optimistic.

"Right now, we're at a pivotal point where we see the voices of young people really taking root," he said, "and some of these issues start to turn the corner."