Steps to Follow Before Election Day: TrevEchoes Guide

By Michelle Loria Alvarado

Assistant News Editor

Several years ago during election day, Lena Welch, dean of the school of arts and sciences, had a student that decided to vote that day. 

She recounts the story of asking for prayer requests in class and a student mentioned that an election was happening that day and put it on the class prayer list. Another student immediately remembered it was election day and said they needed to go vote after class. The student was not from Tennessee and could not vote in person that day because they weren’t registered to vote in Tennessee.

“There was this idea that you could just decide to vote on that day. And that’s a misconception. You have to get registered and that registration has to be done several weeks before the election,” said Welch.

Student Development officials and faculty members are working on campus to educate students about how to register to vote. 

Election day is Nov. 5 and this will be the first election for many college students.

Elections are not only national. There are several state and local races on the ballot as well.

“It matters [voting] not only for that particular election. It matters because it is important for citizens to be engaged in civic involvement. It matters for our communities and even if you’re not going to do the national, make sure that you know what’s happening locally,” said Jeffrey Wells, professor of communication studies. “You can’t complain about the way things are if you are not willing to be involved.” 

It is important that students fulfill their right to vote, and to do so, there are a couple of steps they need to complete first. 

Register to vote: The first step students need to complete before the election is registering to vote in their home state. Some helpful websites that will help with the registration process include Rock the Vote and Vote.gov. 

Know where to vote: It is important that students are aware of their voting ahead of time. Voters can only vote in their assigned precinct location. Students can check for their location through Vote.org, which directs them to their state’s polling place locator.

Be aware of deadlines: Students voting out of their state of residence, need to complete an absentee voter or vote through mail. For more information on what procedure each state uses, go to nass.org and select a state. To check for deadlines, go to Vote.org. 

Vote: It is important that out-of-state students send their votes on time, and that in-state students take the time to go and vote on election day.