How and where to vote at UIC in 2024 election
On National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 17, students with UIC Student Leadership and Civic Engagement handed out information, snacks, posters and pins on the Quad by Student Center East. A steady stream of visitors picked up leaflets with a QR code to a voter registration site or weighed in on the issues they care about.
“It’s important to vote,” graduate student Parrama Chouhan said between handing out voter guides. “I think making your voice heard on issues you care about — it can be any issue across the spectrum — you need to be civically engaged to make sure whatever you care about, you did your part.
“A lot of students are eligible to vote but they just don’t know how to get registered to vote,” he added.
That’s why UIC has set up several methods to make it easier for students to register and to vote. The university is an early-voting site, which means students who are registered to vote can vote right on campus — at Student Center East, Room 613 (in the Tower at the north end of Student Center East) — from Oct. 21 to Nov. 5, Election Day.
Oct. 20 is the last day to register online to vote. Oct. 31 is the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot.
UIC also has signed up for TurboVote, where students can register or check their voter registration status. Go to vote.uic.edu to get there. The site is also a hub for lots of other voter and election information, like information on local referendums and candidates.
TurboVote is helping ease voter registration at UIC, said Rae Joyce Baguilat, director of Student Leadership and Civic Engagement. Previously, UIC trained students to be deputy registrars to help register students. “Now that we have online voter registration, we just use TurboVote,” Baguilat said.
UIC recently received a Silver seal from the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for the percentage of UIC students who voted in the 2022 midterm election — 30%. The Washington, D.C.-based nonpartisan organization encourages voter registration and election participation by college students.
In presidential elections, UIC students’ participation has been even higher. In 2020, 65% of UIC students voted in the election, earning a Silver seal from ALL IN and marking a rise from the Bronze seal UIC won for student participation in the 2016 election.
As Election Day nears, several campus organizations are planning other voter registration and election events, with details still to come. Student Leadership and Civic Engagement has a list of events, too. First up is a watch party Oct. 1 of the vice presidential debate.
And on Oct. 30 is Party to the Polls, on the East Terrace at Student Center East, where students can learn about candidates, see what their ballot will look like and find the early-voting location.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Oct. 31 is the deadline to apply for a mail-in ballot.
