Mary Washington Prepares For National Voter Registration Day

FREDERICKSBURG, VA — University of Mary Washington students, faculty and staff will be participating in National Voter Registration Day on Tuesday where volunteers will help students register to vote on campus for the Nov. 3 elections with "touchless" applications and personal pens.

The volunteers will be taking safety precautions in response to the coronavirus crisis. Typically, there is a lot of sharing of pens and paper or touching of tablets during voter registration drives. On UMW's campus, the volunteers will be doing their best to protect students and themselves. Volunteers also will be offering goodie bags and coupons for Freddy Doughnuts to students who register to vote.

To encourage greater participation in the election, the university also has formed a UMW Votes team and is one of the nation’s first universities to cancel classes on Election Day, establishing a “Day on Democracy” to facilitate civic and community engagement.

The UMW Votes team was created to carry out voter registration, education and mobilization activities on campus.

Two-thirds of UMW's student body cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election and 53 percent voted in the 2018 midterms, according to the university. On a nationwide basis, about 58 percent of all eligible voters cast ballots in the 2016 presidential elections.

That means about 100 million eligible voters did not participate in the 2016 election. In his winning bid for the presidency, President Donald Trump received 62,984,828 votes and Hillary Clinton received 65,853,514 votes. Trump won the presidency because he received more electoral college votes.

Among age groups, less than half of Americans aged 18 to 29 — 46 percent — cast ballots in the 2016 presidential election. All other age groups reported greater than 50-percent turnout, with citizens 65 years and older reporting the highest turnout at 71 percent.

Last Friday was the first day of in-person absentee voting at locations across Virginia. It was also the day that voter registrars' office began sending out ballots to registered voters who had requested them.

On Monday night, UMW is hosting a debate between candidates for Virginia's 1st congressional. Republican incumbent Rep. Rob Wittman will face off against Qasim Rashid (D) live via Zoom, with public viewing accessible through YouTube.