With the presidential election just around the corner, the University of Rhode Island’s Multicultural Student Services Center and Talent Development Program hosted a community voter registration drive on Sept. 24.
The voter drive helped people register to vote and informed people who are already registered to vote of the issues, according to its URI events page . This included teaching students how to update their voting information and learning how to complete mail-in ballots.
“The MSSC was built off of student voices, student protest and emphasizing what was right on campus and kind of modeling that,” said Bobby Britto-Oliveria ‘06 ‘11, the assistant director of the MSSC. “I came up on that kind of legacy and I wanna replicate it for our current students.”
Britto-Oliveria stressed the importance of student involvement in the voting process. He said that expressing their voices is important and they should be heard.
“If your vote wasn’t important, there wouldn’t be people in positions that are working so hard to suppress it,” Britto-Oliveria said.
The event also included multiple student organizations such as URI Hillel, the Gender and Sexuality Center and the Women’s Center. These groups educated attendees about issues on the ballot this election cycle and what methods voters should take to advocate for their values.
“We’re here to encourage students to get out there and vote and highlight the importance of that not only in a civic life, but in a Jewish values lens as well,” Michael Schreiber, director of Jewish student life, said.
Schreiber and URI’s Hillel Center advertised a program called Mitz Vote! that explains how to register, update information and find local polling places.
The URI Women’s Center informed students on reproductive rights and women’s health issues.
By hosting a giveaway and distributing informational flyers at the event, the student involvement office helped promote equity and diversity in voting.
“We saw that MSSC was doing a voter registration event and we thought it would be awesome to collaborate,” said Juju Al-Amir, the graduate student assistant at the Office of Student Involvement.
Students received free food vouchers and rubber ducks with the phrase “quack the vote” on them to promote voter registration.
This event was held on the Quad and partnered with a Beats & Eats food truck event that provided students with free food from Mac’s Screaming Corn & Tacos. Beats & Eats is organized by the Office of Student Involvement, the MSSC and Rhody Connect.
By combining the community voter registration with a celebration of Hispanic heritage month through food, Al-Amir hoped to emphasize the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion at URI.
“Beats & Eats is a great opportunity to spread awareness for a different heritage month, or a different awareness month for example,” Al-Amir said.
In Rhode Island, mail in ballot applications are due by Oct. 15 and early voting starts on Oct. 16. Rhode Islanders can register to vote on vote.sos.ri.gov until election day on Nov. 5.