Kent State Undergraduate Student Government hosted Democracy Day Oct. 6 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Risman Plaza to promote civic engagement and voting registration.
Music and food trucks provided an exciting atmosphere for students to learn more as they walked from table to table.
USG Director of Governmental Affairs Richard Skains hopes Democracy Day taught students they can be active in civic engagement, even though there is not a big election coming up.
“We’re set up here today because we’re trying to get students to register to vote,” Skains said. “We want to encourage the importance of local elections.”
The event featured university and local political organizations that encouraged students to register to vote by providing free resources and registration forms.
Local political organizations included the League of Women Voters of Kent and the Ohio Student Association.
“One of the biggest questions we were faced with is how do we engage student voters in a time when there’s no big races? We want to encourage them to participate in the local ones,” Skains said.
USG hopes students are aware of the opportunities and voices they have, especially when it comes to civic engagement.
Students could register to vote at the USG table. They could also spin a wheel to get a prize and grab a free cup of cider.
To promote the goals of the event, students had the chance to pie USG Student Body President Ivory Kendrick.
“Even if it’s not an election year, like a heavy election year, you can still come out here and see your local candidates and get involved and registered to vote,” Kendrick said. “It’s our civic duty as United States citizens, and I’m here to get pied to help promote that.”
Students were randomly selected from a drawing to fill a plate with whipped cream and smash it into Kendrick’s face.
“You don’t have to make civic engagement boring. You can always make it more fun and more exciting,” Kendrick said.
Sara Ashley-Cook from the League of Women Voters of Kent hopes to show students how they can be civically engaged. Ashley-Cook sees that many students are civically engaged, but are not sure what resources are available.
“We’re hoping that just a basic sense of civic duty, and they need to protect their education and their healthcare access while going to college at Kent State University is what draws [students],” Ashley-Cook said. “We try to make sure that they’re excited, they’re informed, that they get as much information as they possibly can on how to vote.”
Kent State organization Transfusion took part in the event with hopes that students will feel more connected to the community and be empowered to vote. Social media marketing coordinator Xander Dotson created flyers for Vote.org and set out absentee ballot and voter registration forms.
“We thought it would be a great opportunity to invite people to vote, especially because we are marginalized communities and there’s so much going on politically right now,” Dotson said. “We think it’s very important to encourage people of our community to go out there and vote to make sure that our rights are upheld and that we can stay safe as a community.”
Democracy Day promoted the rights that students have as voters and the power of their voices. USG hopes students become more aware of the events and opportunities they can get involved in.
“[Students are] always welcome at our events. We’re here for them. We serve them, and we put these on for them,” Skains said. “We want students to be able to feel heard, and we want them to be involved.”
Loreal Puleo is a reporter. Contact her at [email protected].