This is Skidmore Podcast: Don’t boo. Vote!

On the latest episode of This is Skidmore, Max Fleischman '19, Doris Donelan '19 and Hannah Fishman '19 sit down with Robin Adams, director of leadership activites, to discuss their efforts to boost voter registration. They cover topics of voter suppression, absentee ballots and how they are getting Skidmore students involved in this year's general election.

Transcript: 

Robin: I'm here with Hannah Fishman, Max Fleischman, and Doris Donolin. Donolin?

Doris: Donolin.

Robin: Donolin, yes. And these are three students that I worked with this year, and they worked with each other to get out the vote here at Skidmore. On November 6 of this year, 2018, we have the midterm elections and these are three students who are pretty passionate about raising the number of college students that voted. I wanted them to tell their story and talk about what their passions are and what they've been doing. So, let's start with it.

Robin: Max, I'm going to start with you because you and I have been a lot in touch over the summer. Tell me what started this with you?

Max: For me it really came from just kind of shock and disappointment in turn out numbers for millennials and Gen-Z in the 2016 election and then was like well, I really can't just sit by and let that happen again. Actually, the day after the election I had 当时我和我的导师开会她就滔滔不绝地说 她对没有大学生投票以及这种情况感到非常不安 a low turn out year for college students and how this really needed to change and ever since then I've really been thinking about this and thinking well, what am I gonna do? And then, last semester I got elected as SGA President and I was like well, I have this position, might as well use it to do something good and try to get people more involved in politics.

Robin: Hannah, you came to this as a sort of, not disaffected, but non-active member of the Skidmore Democrats, right?

Hannah: 嗯，我们去年做了这个活动——我们为全国选民登记做了一个活动 与萨拉托加县妇女选民联盟，罗宾和 I coordinated with their liaison, Kathy, and we did that through Doris's club, Connect 妇女选民联盟(League of Women Voters)正在登记选民，而我们正在 说到投票本身的一些琐事，那是100周年，当女性 在纽约有投票权，所以，你知道，来和我们谈谈，告诉我们在哪里 你要登记投票，回答一些问题，拿块糖果之类的. We had stickers celebrating voter registration and it went really well, they registered, I want to say like 50 voters. I'm not sure, it was an off year election...

Robin: This was last year?

Hannah: This was last year. But it went very well and after the event, we kind of then lightly 我一直和凯西保持联系，商量明年的活动，所以有一些 se-mailing back and forth over the summer, but no real plans. Got back to school, 我听到了一个令人惊讶的消息，SGA正在采取这个行动，这是一个很大的倡议 it was awesome. And I was kind of like oh, well, um, can I play? I want to be part of this. And I kind of weaseled my way in and here I am now. I think this event went amazingly, I wouldn't say like definitely way better than last year, but it was just different and especially the energy about registering to vote and voting in this year's midterms is way different than it was in voting in 2017.

Robin: Tell me about Connect with Congress.

Doris: So, I'm not a Political Science major, I'm Social Work major...

Robin: That's okay.

Doris: I was in this Social Work class called Working with Groups, Organizations, and Communities, 你必须为这门课做一个大项目，花大约40个小时来完成 to get the credit. So we made a club called Connect with Congress. And the point was for it to be a way for people to get in touch with their representative in the House of Representatives. That was kind of the original goal, but then also in our mission statement we wanted to up voter turn out at Skidmore, and have more students be registered 去投票，对投票有更多的了解，它就这样出现了 mission statement, that if people were more informed and involved then they're gonna want to vote more, so we started doing voter registration drives.

Doris: 是啊，去年和汉娜在一起，那是我第一次参与 because I was like, this seems like a really great way to do something active on campus.

Doris: Something that's also been different is the whole absentee thing, a lot of people will be like, are you registered to vote? And they're like, yeah. Then be like, do you have your absentee? And then they're like, oh my god, no I don't. So we've been mailing people's absentee ballots for them.

Hannah: 我认为这是我最喜欢的事情之一，尤其是与去年相比 when you get someone and you're like, okay but do you need absentee ballot, and they turn - they stop - and they give you a look, and they're like yeah, I do.

Robin: ...so it's the same as sharing a meme on Facebook.

Max: Yeah, exactly. It's the first step that you have some other stuff you gotta do.

Doris: And people don't realize they need to get their absentee for every election. That it won't just keep coming after you've done it the first time.

Hannah:这很好，因为他们通常会想要谈论和学习 absentee, and we've also, I think, in the past, the drives have focused just on registering 萨拉托加斯普林斯的人，但我认为我们做得很好 sure, oh, you know, here are the pros and cons of registering here versus where you're from. If you wanted to register at home, here's how you could do that, and not just limiting people to registering here.

Max: I think registering for absentee ballots has been the hot new thing. It's nice to 你看，这就像人们关心他们的家，想要参与进来 with their own local politics.

Doris:If you make it easy for people, they're very into it.

Max:Yeah, a lot of hesitation and lack in interest in voting, not even lack of interest, the supposed lack of interest, comes from more ignorance and anxiety about voting because people don't understand the basics of it. Actually, one girl directly asked me, so like with the midterms, am I just voting for like Democrats, basically she thought it was like a primary situation. And I was like no, it's just like the presidential election except there's no president running. It's just a general election. And she was like, oh, then she understood that, and she was a lot better and she felt so much more prepared and then she was asking more about like, okay, so what's going on with 我的家乡，谁在竞选，等等，等等，我怎么才能拿到缺席选票， 然后她就能得到所有的信息，为选举日做好准备.

Hannah:I've had a few people walk by and be like, oh, this is for SGA? No, I don't care, I'm not voting. And they're like, no, no, no, this is for the real government. No hate on SGA, but this one's for a really important election.

Max:That might have a bigger impact on you than what I will do in SGA.

Robin: You're very good at e-mails, usually...

Max: Thank you. Sometimes. 

Hannah:It's the subject lines, you get the people, hooking in with the...

Max:Yeah, with the flirty subject lines.

Robin:One of the things I was struck by is the presence, the consistent, consistent, consistent, presence out there, talking to people who have questions is important. As I was doing 为一群学生举办了一场火博体育投票重要性的大型研讨会， and fielding individual questions in a large room is colossally difficult, and I knew this all along, but was really brought to light at that moment.

Robin:我相信，我们国家的选举法是多么的疯狂 they vary from state to state, often times county to county, and it's incredibly difficult. 所以和一个学生一起研究这在夸亚霍加县意味着什么，而那里有 大量来自不同县或不同州的人使得它真的 difficult. So, actually being out there and talking to people is so important. And 你们都能做到这一点，在一个令人难以置信的和有目的的无党派 way. Partnered with the Skidmore Republicans, who are out there helping you register 我认为这是我们作为一个机构必须做的事情， right?

Robin:It may not be the best method of attracting people to a cause, right? But, in here, the cause is voting.

Doris:People also think that voting won't have a direct impact on their lives, but it actually does in a lot of ways. Policy effects everyone. So, if you can bring something up, you're like, you know this happens because of this thing that happened recently. They're like, oh my god, wow, that's crazy.

Robin:And you've entered into a policy writing competition?

Doris:No, I might. So, I'm in a class right now called Social Policy and Social Justice, which is a 300 level senior social work class, and what you do for that class is write a policy statement. So, he was talking about if we wanted to, we could enter the competition. And I'm actually doing mine on a voting policy.

Robin:Very interesting. What's sort of voting policy?

Doris:新罕布什尔州州长最近通过了一项法律，这意味着为了投票 在新罕布什尔州，你需要申报合法居留权，这是生效的 in July 2019. So, it's like here, if you study at Skidmore, you can just register 在纽约投票，然后你可以去国际刑事法院投票，但这将是 next year in New Hampshire, you'll need either a car registered in New Hampshire, which can cost hundreds of dollars or you need to get a new license. It's pretty much just tantamount to a poll tax. And, it's really kind of a blatant measure to suppress the student vote, in my opinion, because a lot of students aren't New Hampshire residents who study in New Hampshire.

Hannah:And I think the ability for students to vote on a campus is so important. I don't think that's always been a thing, I don't know the history of it, but when people finally realize, well these students live in this area, on this campus, so yeah, they should be able to be registered to vote here. They could be here for four years, maybe more with graduate school.

Hannah:这里的学生可能会说，哦，我对萨拉托加的政治一无所知，但是好吧， 你不需要知道每一个细节，但政策付诸实施就会产生效果 you and also future Skidmore students to come. It sets the ground for what you can 火博体育必须遵守纽约州和萨拉托加斯普林斯的法律. If that law is bad - Juuling's illegal - that effects you.

Robin:纽约州法律规定火博体育的学生，大学生，可以投票 town that you are living. You are residents of this town. Therefore, you represent this town. That was challenged at one point, I believe the New York state supreme court, where it was struck down.

Hannah: Yeah, Skidmore's its own district within Saratoga Springs, which is really important. We actually have two seats on the Saratoga Springs Democratic committee. I was originally going to be one of those seats, but I'm actually registered in Maryland and they said, you need to re-register, and I was like no. I want to vote in Maryland elections, 所以现在他们有其他的学生来填补这些职位，但是他们 get to be a part of that policy discussion within a committee that's mostly older people from Saratoga Springs.

Doris:Recently, I was talking to my Professor, and he said this - were you guys reading about the thing that was going in Georgia where they were trying to shut down all these polling stations? So basically apparently the same thing, the county tried to 和火博体育的投票有关系吗，几年前他们试图关闭那里的投票 at Skidmore on account of it not being accessible and to move it to a town building, or even to the gym, that was an idea, which I think people would vote less if it was in the gym. It's kind of just crazy how it happens everywhere, that people are trying to shut down polling locations. I just thought was interesting that that happened at Skidmore.

Max:这就好像投票变得如此复杂，以至于降低了投票或类似的事情 that. It's almost like we have a history of disenfranchising people from their access 到投票，这种情况还在继续尽管情况有所好转，也许 not necessarily done. There's always room to improve.

Robin:Easy, Max. You've registered people to vote. We've still got...

Hannah:About a week.

Robin:Well we've got a month until the election so, after the deadlines what's next?

Max:Well reminding people to vote, that's the basic thing. It's just being like, hey, 要注意这些问题，知道什么时候是选举日，知道什么时候你必须得到你的 absentee ballot in, really, getting registered, getting your absentee ballot, signed 准备好是很好，但如果你不出现，那就没有任何意义了 vote. It's the equivalent of liking something on Facebook. It doesn't really do anything it just shows, oh I'm kind of interested, but if you don't show up then it means absolutely nothing, it means diddly squat.

Robin:So will you be out there with your laptops on vote.org, showing people?

Hannah:I think it's getting people's phone numbers or e-mails for election day reminder sign 事实上，人们更愿意给这些东西，因为我们没有 我会用任何东西轰炸你，除了，嘿，今天是11月6日，给我滚开 to the polls.

Max:Yeah, I'm gonna write a very funny e-mail, send it out, remind people to vote.

Robin:Guy's, thank you for doing this.

Robin:我们以一个问题结束了这期播客，我觉得这个问题很可爱， I'm gonna keep doing it. Hannah...

Hannah:Oh, I was gonna say don't start with me.

Robin:Doris?

Doris:You can start with me.

Robin:Doris, what's your creative thought?

Doris:My creative thought would be, I don't know if this is a creative thought, but basically 在大学里做些有创意的事情，因为我觉得 easy to just get into this rhythm of you wake up, you go to class, I don't know, and 很多人都参加课外活动，但我觉得大学是一个很棒的地方 一个有很多资源的地方，可以让你活跃起来，朝着那些事情努力 are important to you and, you know when you go home for Thanksgiving and your relatives 他们会说，你们这些年轻人都毁了，你们什么都不做，不像，实际上，我 help registered over 100 people, so, I don't know, I just think to really pay attention to the resources around you.

Max:Yeah, I would reiterate pay attention to all the resources around you. There's so 这里有很多你可以利用的东西，只是人们没有意识到. Also, pay attention to the news and think of the national as local because every national 问题始于一个小镇的地方问题，比如海洛因或阿片类药物的流行 going on in the country right now. I think in upstate New York, 52% of New Yorkers will admit to knowing someone who's been affected by that, like that's a local issue.

Max:That's something that's affecting us locally, I think, from my experience in my high school, my peers who I know who have passed away, have passed away because of issues 阿片类药物或海洛因，所以这是一个全国性的问题，哦，这个 is where it's affecting me right here right now, what can I do to help fix that? And 你能做的一件事就是关注政治和你要选的人 办公室，他们的钱从哪里来，如果他们的钱是从哪里来的 大型制药公司或者如果他们从当地的当地人那里得到更多的钱 it's very important to be aware of that stuff. That's my creative thought.

Hannah:我的创意想法是，这很奇怪，但要有创意，就像你 engage students and voters in talking about voting and registering to vote, I think, because I've found that the normal, just like - hey, register to vote, voting is good - doesn't work at high rates and really connecting to the student on a level that 他们可以联系到的是真正重要的和当地的问题，与他们有关 home town or here at Skidmore, that's I think the way to reach people.

Hannah:找到他们生活中受政策影响的方面是非常有用的 making sure that people turn out to vote, people show up and that's my creative thought.

Robin:Thank you all. It's been a pleasure. Doris, say goodbye to the people.

Doris: Goodbye everyone.

Robin:Bye to the people.

Hannah:Bye. See ya later.