UMW student working to establish polling location on campus

Fredericksburg, Adele Uphaus:

Depending on where they live, residential students at the University of Mary Washington could be in one of three Fredericksburg City wards or one of two Virginia House of Delegates districts.

So when elections come around every November, students are always confused about where to vote and who is on their ballot, said UMW sophomore Callie Jordan of Chesapeake.

“Mary Washington is gerrymandered in three different locations,” said Jordan, a double major in political science and women’s and gender studies. “That means that come election time, it’s complicated and confusing—and even more for first-year students without a car, who might be voting for the first time ever.”

Jordan is hoping to make things a little simpler by establishing a polling location on UMW’s campus. She’s working with support from UMW Votes, a nonpartisan program dedicated to creating civically engaged students, and a national program—MTV’s +1 the Polls program. The program is a partnership between MTV and parent company ViacomCBS and other voting advocacy groups, including the Alliance for Youth Organizing, Campus Vote Project and the Students Learn Students Vote Coalition.

The goal is to support students who are working to protect existing polling places or bring new polling places to their college campuses.

Read the full article here.