With local elections approaching on Nov. 4, local political groups on and off campus are working to galvanize civic engagement.
One of these groups is the League of Women Voters Tompkins County, a non-partisan organization that provides up-to-date information for voters on national, state and local elections.
“The LWVTC works hard to reach out to all community groups whenever we are working to register voters,” Sally Grubb, voter services chair at LWVTC wrote in a statement to The Sun.
LWVTC recruits league members as liaisons to work with community groups. Last year, LWVTC had active liaisons working with Tompkins Cortland Community College, Ithaca College and Cornell University. This year, they have had an active liaison engaging with TC3 at new student events for Registration Day and attending Ithaca College’s new student welcome event However, they “have been unable to reach out to Cornell,” according to Grubb.
While LWVTC’s outreach did not extend to Cornell this year, Grubb emphasized “the importance of voting locally in Tompkins County where [students] attend college.”
Co-chair of Cornell Young Democratic Socialists of America, Hudson Athas ’27 echoed the importance of voters registering in Ithaca “because the win numbers are so small.”
Cornell YDSA works to educate and facilitate students to become strong organizers in the Ithaca and Cornell communities, according to their mission statement. This election, Cornell YDSA has endorsed Hannah Shvets ’27, who is running for Common Council Ward 5.
Cornell YDSA has focused their voter registration and outreach on North Campus, because that is where Hannah Shvets is running. They have tabled outside of Morrison Hall, passed out flyers and encouraged direct personal outreach. Athas noted the increase in engagement as compared with primary elections.
On campus, Cornell Votes is a non-partisan, University-sponsored and student-led organization that aims to increase voter registration turnout and civic engagement.
Student engagement in local elections seems to have declined this semester, with about half as many new voter registrations as last year, according to Erik Lapidus ’27, president of Cornell Votes.
This semester, Cornell Votes registered 93 students to vote and assisted 122 students to navigate absentee ballots, according to Lapidus.
“This is a significant increase from the dozen or so forms we collected in 2023, though below the 385 forms we turned in in 2024,” Lapidus wrote.
While Cornell’s voter registration rate is about the same as the national average for colleges, it is lower than most peer institutions, according to Lapidus. As observed in previous years, many Cornell students have struggled with the absentee ballot process, which limits actual voting participation.
“Even in cases where people don't want to register in Ithaca, they know where they're registered, and they're very passionate about where they're registered to vote for whatever reason,” Athas said. “They feel like there's an important election that they have to vote in.”
This year, Cornell Votes instituted voter outreach efforts and launched a text alert system where students receive reminders about state-specific deadlines and election updates — a system that over 100 students are currently utilizing. The group also overhauled its website, adding a chatbot and resources on registration, absentee ballots and polling locations for every U.S. state and territory.
“[W]e set a goal for the number of students we help register to vote or request an absentee ballot. Since it's an off-year election, we put that figure at 200 students, and we have met that mark,” Lapidus wrote.
They have specifically made efforts to inform first-year students by tabling at events such as the Touchdown Resource Round-Up and Big Red Welcome Days, as well as Grad Student Connect Fair, Apple Fest and West Campus Wellness Fair, according to Lapidus.
Other organizations have also organized events to engage and inform constituents ahead of elections. Cornell Democrats hosted a local candidate panel for four democratic candidates running for Ithaca Common Council and Tompkins County Legislature on Oct. 20. Candidates answered questions from students and spoke on prominent issues such as Cornell’s financial responsibility to the community, fixing property-tax inequities and strengthening housing and tenant protections.
Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, in collaboration with Tompkins Chamber, Community Foundation and Ithaca Board of Realtors, hosted a “Meet the Candidates Forum” on Sept. 29 that featured candidates running for Tompkins County Legislature, designed to inform voters before their polling decisions.
Cereese Qusba is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Arts and Sciences. She is a news editor for the 143rd Editorial Board and can be reached at cqusba@cornellsun.com.
