T he North Carolina State Board of Elections should make it easier for students living in residence halls to access voting information for the May 6 primary election.
The Board of Elections mails voter guides to all residential addresses in the state, but dorms do not fall under this category. There is no need for the classification to change for the purpose of distributing voter information to dorm mailboxes; many students don’t even check their mail regularly.
Rather, a better strategy would be to make the information more accessible online, considering most students access the Internet multiple times per day. The Board of Elections website includes extensive information about registration, polling places and absentee voting. Unfortunately, most students do not know to look there on their own, and the necessary information can be hard to find.
Therefore, a concise student-oriented electronic version of the voter guide should be created by the Board of Elections and distributed via email to all students who live in dorms, perhaps through emails sent out by resident advisers or members of community governments.
This is the best approach to make sure students see the information and are reminded to vote. Most students must check their email multiple times a day for updates about their classes or extracurricular activities so they would be sure to see the information almost instantaneously.
The email should provide the information most pertinent to students — the day of the election, the closest polling place, what they need to bring and information on absentee voting for students who want to vote in the home counties’ elections.
