The Borough of Manhattan Community College hosted the first CUNY Votes Summit last week in partnership with NYC Votes, where the Pledge to Vote campaign aims to have 25,000 CUNY students to pledge to vote was introduced.
The summit included workshops and keynote speeches concerning increasing young voter participation.
NYC Votes is a non-partisan initiative of New York City Campaign Finance Board (NYCCFB) and Voter Assistance Advisory Committee Members, working on educating the youth about the importance of voting. One of the main goals of the organization is to double the youth voter turnout for the next municipal election in 2021.
“This means we need 250,000 young voters under the age of 30 to come out and vote in 2021,” said Sabrina Castillo, Director of Partnerships and Outreach at NYCCFB about their goal. “CUNY has higher voter registration, but in some local elections, the turnout is not as high,” she added.
In the last mayoral election, the turnout rate for young voters was 13.5%, according to NYC Votes data.
“We are starting now because in the presidential election, New York City has high voter participation for youth. People who vote in a presidential election are more likely to come and vote in a municipal election,” Castillo said.
Voter mobilization and adaptive leadership workshops during the summit informed the attendees about the strategies to get people in their community to vote.
“A lot of people will tell you that they do not want to vote because no matter what it does not make a difference in New York. But it is not the case. If we can change the amount of people voting, we can change the type of legislation that is being proposed,” said Olga Filakouris, Regional Supervisor in New York Public Interest Research Group.
Filakouris highlighted the importance of not only helping the community to register but also ensuring that they actually vote.
There were students in the audience that worked for CUNY Census Corps, which is an effort to help to get an accurate count for the decennial census. “We make sure that everyone fills the census out so communities can get the funding and representation that they deserve,” said Onika George, a Baruch College student working for CUNY Census Corps.
With 19 CUNY campuses represented in the event, CUNY University Student Senate’s Chairperson Timothy Hunter also spoke and encouraged his peers to vote in order to help pass the legislation necessary to get more funding for CUNY.
CUNY students can text to (917) 979-6377 OR visit http://voting.nyc/CUNYpower to take the pledge and receive alerts about the elections.
