With the 2024 election just 40 days away, Emory University students have the opportunity to impact the outcome of the presidential election in Georgia. U.S. President Joe Biden won Georgia, one of less than a dozen decisive battleground states, by only 11,779 votes in 2020.
This November will be the first time many Emory undergraduate students are eligible to vote in a presidential election, but according to Executive Board Member at Large for the Young Democrats of Emory Pranay Mamileti (26B), student enthusiasm about showing up to the polls is varied.
“Some students are very excited to vote for the first time and are very excited to be a part of these campaigns, but other students voice very valid concerns about feeling like it doesn't really matter,” Mamileti said. “On certain issues, there isn't too much daylight between one candidate or another in how they will enforce any sort of policies or what they’ll do to change them.”
Associate Professor of Religion Florian Pohl echoed hearing a similar sentiment among his students regarding the presidential election.
“I talked to a lot of students who seem to be rather detached from the process, and detached not so much in the way that they don't care about the process, but especially when it was the Trump-Biden presidential election, did not feel that that was a choice for them that they wanted to make,” Pohl said.
In the 2020 election, voter turnout among 18 to 24-year-olds was the lowest of all age groups — only 44.7% of young adults voted in the southern United States, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The Emory Votes Initiative (EVI), a nonpartisan organization focused on increasing voter literacy, has organized events at both the Oxford and Atlanta campuses to increase knowledge about the election process and help people register to vote. These initiatives include tabling at Wonderful Wednesdays at the Atlanta campus and Take a Break Tuesday at Oxford.
Ryan Wang (25Ox), a student intern at the Oxford Votes Initiative (OxVotes), emphasized the importance of EVI.
“Georgia has its history when it comes to voting, and it’s not been true that in every election that everyone has been able to exercise the right to vote,” Wang said. “It's really important both to educate people on why it’s important that we exercise our right to vote and also to make sure that everybody understands that there are resources available for if you’re trying to get registered to vote.”
Associate Professor of Political Science Andra Gillespie underlined concerns about changes to the Georgia State Election Board, especially in relation to the “concern” surrounding certification of the 2024 presidential election. She specifically talked about Senate Bill 202 (S.B. 202), a bill altering rules around voting, the power of Georgia’s secretary of state and the composition of the State Election Board.
“Right after S.B. 202 was put into place, people were worried about the things that are actually very public facing and would affect citizens directly,” Gillespie said.
S.B. 202 limits the number of absentee ballot dropboxes in Georgia and the hours they can be used, bans outside groups from providing food and water to those waiting in line to vote, requires increased forms of identification for absentee ballots and bans mobile voting units for early voting barring a “declared disaster,” among other changes.
According to Gillespie, certain portions of the bill are thought to be targeted against Black voters. She mentioned that the restrictions on weekend voting are believed to limit the efficacy of Souls to the Polls, a tradition where predominantly Black churches bus congregation members to polling locations.
“If we look at voting rates by race … you can see that there is a spike in the number of Black people who show up to vote on weekends, and so most people like to regularly attribute that to activities like Souls to the Polls,” Gillespie said.
Gillespie said that other changes, such as a provision stating that Georgia will provide more voting machines in locations with long voting lines in an attempt to decrease wait times, are positive but not what most people focused on.
Additionally, the Georgia State Election Board approved a measure on Sept. 20 that forces all counties in Georgia to hand-count ballots in addition to machine tabulation, which is how Georgia has counted votes in the past. This measure, approved less than two months before the election, may result in delays in declaring and certifying the results of Georgia’s election.
Considering the restrictions on voting, Gillespie underlined the importance of voters collecting proper identification needed for voting and meeting voting deadlines.
Voting at Emory
At Emory, EVI and OxVotes have been assisting students with voter registration.
In collaboration with Oxford’s Student Government Association, OxVotes will be organizing shuttles to take students to early voting locations in Newton County and other counties in the metro Atlanta area, according to Megan Hulgan, Oxford assistant director of Student Involvement, Leadership and Transitions. OxVotes has recently sent out an interest form about shuttles to polling locations. Additionally, OxVotes will be organizing a March to the Polls event on Election Day to bring people to vote in groups.
Though Emory is holding classes on Election Day, the Young Democrats of Emory have been trying to get “Election Day relief,” according to Mamileti. Emory staff are allowed to take four hours off for the purpose of voting, and the Young Democrats of Emory have encouraged faculty to provide asynchronous classes or cancel class on Election Day to make it easier for students to vote.
Wang, Pohl, Gillespie and Mamileti all stressed the importance of showing up to vote on or before Election Day.
“I have no doubts about there being a significant amount of Emory voters turning out this election,” Mamileti said. “I think that if we keep it up on our end and keep registering students to vote, then there’s nothing to say that we won’t make a big impact during this election and potentially swing it.”
EVI co-Executive Student Director Angel Sosa (26C) said that registering to vote online may take a few weeks to process, so people registering to vote should give themselves a “buffer.”
“Voting truly is one of the, if not the, most powerful tool to have your voice heard in government,” Sosa said.
The deadline to register to vote is Oct. 7. Registration can be done online for those with a Georgia driver’s license or through a paper document found at the Georgia government’s website. Newton County requires registration to be sent in through the mail or be done in person at a local governmental office, but DeKalb County allows registration to be emailed as well. The deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 25 and can be done here. Visit the EVI website or the Georgia government’s website for more information about voting requirements and deadlines.
Update (9/26/2024 at 12:25 p.m.): This article was updated to include a comment from Young Democrats of Emory President Amanda Wendler (25C).
