In print | Published October 28, 2004

As this year’s election draws nearer, many have noticed an optimistic trend: Voter registration is up significantly this year, especially among America’s youth. Many partisan groups have increased their efforts to draw new voters into the political process, placing an increased emphasis on getting students to register and volunteer to help get out the vote.

Here on campus, students have spent months gearing up for the election. A new organization, the Swarthmore Voter Registration Coalition, has worked unceasingly toward the goal of turning every Swarthmore student into an informed, motivated voter and making sure that as many people in this crucial swing state have a voice in the election as possible. They’ve canvassed this whole area, registering new voters down the road in Chester and in surrounding areas. Furthermore, Martin Warner, the registrar, has gone beyond his federally mandated responsibilities in providing students as many resources as possible to register and travel to vote next Tuesday.

Yet despite this local enthusiasm for the election, most of the administration is acting slowly to make it easier for students to vote without compromising their duties to Swarthmore College. While this week two students gathered over 400 signatures after just two hours of Sharples tabling in support of scaling back operations on Election Day, the administration’s only response was to announce it would consider the issue some time in the next few days. Students were told it was entirely their responsibility to obtain excused absences from their professors if they planned to volunteer at the election.

Is this apathetic response really the message the administration wants to send about the importance of participation in democracy? The administration should have been considering these questions before students brought them up, at least seriously entertaining the suggestion to have a schoolwide voting holiday for this year’s election. It would have been easy to schedule a make-up day of classes in December; we already do that for classes missed due to Thanksgiving. For many students, this election and the real political consequences it will bring for us are more important than one American holiday celebration. If this is too drastic a step, the administration should at least encourage professors to cancel classes and release non-essential staff for the day.

In an age when declining voter participation is often denounced as an epidemic that threatens our democracy, our college should do everything it can to reverse that trend.

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