JR Smith, MT10 Reporter
There’s a phrase often used around election season: You really don’t have a right to complain unless you vote.
So why is it that many of us don’t?
Only 18% of young folks voted back in 2014, and while that number went up a little in 2016 and 2018, a lot of college students are still staying at home.
Allison Reddish, an MTSU student, said, “We’re kinda expecting someone to take our hand, and hold us, and walk us down there, and it’s just not gonna happen.”
Come election time… MTSU students can vote at polling places that are close to campus, like the one at Reeves-Rogers Elementary School.
But some students say that if they just brought the voting booth to the college campus, it would make more students want to get out and vote.
All of us live on campus,” said MTSU student Daniel Riggs, “so going to a different voting area might not be possible for everyone, since we might not have transportation.”
But here’s the problem: Tennessee has tried to pass the law this year— and it failed.
People say the reason for its failure ranges from budget issues to voter turnout.
The demographics of college students aren’t really like what’s in the voter turnout.
But regardless, the election commission says they have been hard at work trying to register students to vote— even if it is off campus.
Alan Farley, the Election Administrator for the Rutherford County Election Commission, said, “We’ve actually sent people our staff on campus during (MTSU) Customs for them to actually— as incoming students— to come in and register to vote in person.”
In person at a polling location that definitely won’t be at MTSU— for now.
