Ohio Wesleyan Students Seek to Close 18-24 Voter Gap
DELAWARE, Ohio – Ohio Wesleyan University students are seeking to top the 2008 youth voter turnout rates this fall as part of a statewide initiative to encourage students on Ohio campuses to come out to the polls this November.
According to civicyouth.org, youth (18-29) voter turnout rose to 51 percent in 2008, an increase of 2 percentage points from the 2004 Presidential election. But youth voter turnout still lags behind turnout of those over 30 years old.
Campuses across the country and the state are seeking to challenge this trend, and Ohio Wesleyan is at the forefront of this movement through its on-campus activities.
The university’s Wesleyan Council on Student Affairs has received a $500 Ohio Campus Compact (OCC) grant, which the student-government group is using to provide free van transportation to early voting locations.
Ohio Wesleyan received the award from the OCC’s Campus Election Engagement Project (CEEP) to defray costs of this project to help engage young voters. OCC is a nonprofit network of 47 member campuses across the state that seeks to involve students, faculty, and staff in service-learning and civic engagement in order to educate, prepare tomorrow’s leaders, and contribute to the quality of life in America’s communities.
OCC’s Campus Election Engagement Project supports and links campus voter mobilization efforts around the state by providing valuable resources and tools to help student leaders, faculty and staff educate and empower students to vote and actively engage in America’s democracy.
For more information on the Campus Election Engagement Project, visit ohiocampuscompact.org and click on Programs.