Kevin Collins: Making time for elections

More than two years ago, a group of students came up with two straightforward ways of increasing student participation in elections. Spearheaded by then-Penn College Republicans leader David Copley and then-Penn Democrats head Rich Eisenberg, these students suggested adding campus polling places and supported another proposal called the "Election Day Initiative."

Last year, polling places were finally added just in time for the 2004 election. But the second idea has yet to see legislative daylight.

The idea is a simple and fair one: Give Election Day the same status Penn already gives Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Christmas, the first two days of Passover and Good Friday.

This would mean prohibiting tests or required assignments on Election Day and giving students who miss class because they worked at a polling place or on a campaign the opportunity to make up missed work in both lecture and lab courses.

By removing academic obstacles, this policy would enable and encourage students to participate in election activities in the same way that the current holiday policy enables students to participate in religious activities.

Furthermore, the proposal calls upon students and the University to work together to create a series of lectures, festivities and events on Election Day to educate student voters and to encourage them to turn out at the polls.

There are good reasons to think that this proposal would increase electoral participation on campus. Election holidays have been routinely cited as ways to increase voter turnout, and Harvard professor Thomas Patterson's Vanishing Voter survey suggested it would be particularly effective for our generation. While we are not suggesting that all student voters get a day with no class, the policy would certainly encourage students to work for campaigns or at the polls.

Additionally, recent research suggests Election Day festivities can dramatically magnify turnout. Most importantly, however, studies have repeatedly shown voting (or not voting) is a habit established early; if we can get students to vote now, the probability that they will continue to vote will skyrocket.

However, this initiative is not only about increasing voting. Rather, it is about advancing the democratic project by enabling and encouraging students to engage at all levels of the electoral process, from working at polls to campaigning to monitoring voters' rights.

It is about recognizing the importance of and giving meaning to our citizenship, a process that is not just the domain of parties and politicians. Institutions of higher learning must be part of this process, for if Penn produces leaders in science, art and business, but not citizen-leaders as well, it will have failed in a profound way.

Last year, students, the Undergraduate Assembly and the administration came together to improve access to the ballot box by expanding the number of campus polling places. That year, we saw a 280 percent increase in student voting over the previous presidential election.

Now, before the midterm elections next year, it is time to act again. It is time for the Penn community to unite around the cause of improving access to the electoral process writ large, and it is time for Penn to lead the way to eminence in democratic education.

Join us. Together, we can lead the way to a better, fairer, more democratic Penn.

Kevin Collins is a senior political science major and a former Daily Pennsylvanian columnist.

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