SUNY New Paltz students are signing up in droves to work the polls for the upcoming U.S. presidential election, so much so that the Center for Student Engagement had to ask if more sign-ups could be accepted.
While the University has long been known as a bastion of civic engagement – as generations of New Paltz alumni have experienced themselves in election years – students have a new opportunity to participate directly in the democratic process, as the Center for Student Engagement partners with the Ulster County Board of Elections to provide voter registration access and other nonpartisan resources to every student on campus.
Students working the polls
When the call for student poll workers went out this fall, the initial 35 spots to open were filled in minutes.
"I was really excited,” said Leslie Gutierrez-Saldana ’20 (Black Studies), who now works on campus as the Civic and Community Engagement Coordinator in the Center for Student Engagement. “When I was getting emails saying, ‘it’s not working,’ I thought maybe I did something wrong. I open it up, and it’s all filled. I was like ‘Wow.’”
Gutierrez-Saldana went on to ask the Ulster County Board of Elections for 20 more spots. Those, too, were filled quickly.
For many of the students getting involved, it’s not only their first time working at the polls but also the first election they’re voting in.
"This is going to be life-changing in a way,” said Brianna Rivers ’26 (Political Science), an undergraduate student who jumped at the chance to get involved. “It’s my first time doing this, and I don’t think a lot of people get to say they’ve worked an election, especially as a college student. It’s an opportunity you don’t get often.”
Students who signed up have received Board of Elections training and were given assignments for their polling sites – some on campus, and some in nearby towns or villages, where they will bring lively energy to polling sites across the region this November. Ulster County Area Transit buses will help transport student poll workers on Election Day. Students are compensated for their time.
The highest voter turnout in the SUNY system
Though this will mark the first year that New Paltz students work the polls in an organized way, voter momentum has been growing on campus for many years.
In 2020, despite ongoing shutdowns due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New Paltz students finished first in the SUNY system in voter participation. The campus has a student voter participation rate of over 70%, and earned a gold seal from ALL IN’s Campus Democracy Challenge. In 2022, New Paltz earned a silver seal from ALL IN for 30 to 39% of students voting in the midterm elections.
The goal this year? To go platinum and reach a voter participation rate of over 80%.
That wouldn’t happen without the work of multiple parties on campus. The culture of voting at SUNY New Paltz owes to collaboration between student groups, faculty, and staff.
“I think it really speaks to the students and kind of institution that we are here,” said Brian Obach, Voter Mobilization Committee member, Interim Chair of the Department of Communication and Professor in the Department of Sociology. “We pride ourselves on encouraging civic engagement and active citizenship. We all encourage students to not just prepare for their career, but life as a fully engaged citizen. It’s rewarding.”
Showing the importance of civic engagement
The Committee’s approach to encouraging civic engagement focuses on two goals: ensuring all students are aware of how to vote, and helping them understand why voting is important.
"It’s instilling in students that it’s important to do,” said Obach. “It’s not just this is how to you do it, and they do it. They also have to recognize that it is important and meaningful. To do that, we need to think about ways to connect the exercise of voting with things that are meaningful and impact their lives.”
This year, one growing challenge is a sense of cynicism. Obach has heard some students express a sense of “it doesn’t matter who is elected, it’s all going to be the same.” He says the Committee has an opportunity to help link election outcomes to real things that impact people’s lives – like tuition costs, for example.
Students are also doing their part to fight this, too. Isabelle Better ’26 (Political Science), one of those who signed up to work at the polls, said that ahead of the election, a lot of people she spoke with were “undecided and didn’t know if they really wanted to go vote.”
“My hope is that I make a difference, no matter how small,” said Better. “I want to get people to participate in their government.”
When it comes to how to vote, faculty members like Obach and others on the committee prioritize sharing non-partisan voter registration information with students, including sending volunteers to specific classes to share information with students. More than 100 faculty members got in touch with Obach about setting up one of these visits this fall.
Meanwhile, other classes might be visited by NYPIRG, a non-partisan organization that advocates for voters’ rights, among other issues, for voter registration training. Students may also find peers at NYPIRG tabling around campus for pre-registration opportunities every Tuesday and Wednesday for weeks leading up to the Oct. 26 deadline to register to vote in New York State.
“Navigating the registration process, especially for new voters who are 18 and coming into college, can be kind of tricky,” said NYPIRG member Brianna Rodriguez ’25 (Environmental Studies). “Our goal is to make this as informative and least difficult as possible, so that students feel empowered and that their voices matter by voting.”
As of National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 17, the group had helped more than 400 students register.
Building awareness
For Gutierrez-Saldana, all the effort going into voter registration and information brings her back to when she was a student at New Paltz, trying to navigate the Election Day experience for the first time, and unsure who could support her.
"I was anxious and nervous not knowing what to expect,” said Gutierrez-Saldana. “I’m a first-generation college student and my mom didn’t have the opportunity to vote, unfortunately. It’s super important to do our part as citizens. I want to ease as much of their anxiousness as I had when I first voted.”
The organized efforts this fall aim to keep students civically engaged beyond just a single presidential election year – to help them feel like participants in democracy throughout their lives.
"Getting people over that first initial hump to vote is crucial,” said Obach. “That happens at college for most people. Having the polling site right here makes it a part of their community, a part of their life, and hopefully, it will be lifelong behavior.”
As in previous election years, Election Day voting (Nov. 5, 2024) will take place on the SUNY New Paltz campus for those registered in New Paltz District 9. This year, the campus polling place will be in Elting Gym.
Those who still need to register to vote before the deadline of Oct. 26 can stop by Gutierrez-Saldana's office in the Student Union Building, Room 211.
Information about voter registration, polling places, early voting, absentee ballots and more can be found on the website of the Ulster County Board of Elections.
