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Kelly Harris

Fredrik deBoer

WRT 303

March 7, 2011

Editorial—Establishing a Polling Place at URI

It’s the first Tuesday in November, a seemingly normal day for students at the University

of Rhode Island. They go to classes until mid-afternoon, then proceed to go to work or the gym

or even sports practices. However, many students that reside in Rhode Island are missing their

civic duty that accompanies this particular day—the civic duty of voting. In a poll conducted by

CBS News, U-WIRE and the Chronicle of Higher Education, a mere 1/3 of students in

“battleground states” (CO, NC, OH, and PA) were politically active. Even in states where their

votes could make a significant impact upon the election results, students chose not to vote.

However, according to Elyse Ashburn, a senior editor at the Chronicle of Higher Education,

among the same population of students polled in the battleground states, 94% of those

students were registered to vote. This lack of participation has been shown to plague not only

battleground states, but rather the entire country—Rhode Island included. The most sensible

option to combat this political lethargy is to establish polling places at state universities,

specifically the University of Rhode Island.

If URI students who reside in Rhode Island were given the option to vote on campus, it is

very likely that voting rates would increase exponentially. This can be supported through the

theory known as the calculus of voting, which predicts voting behavior. The formula for the
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calculus of voting, as stated by Dr. Shanna Pearson-Merkowitz, is as follows:

y=a+ x 1−x 2−x 3−x 4. In this equation, “y” represents the likelihood of voting, “a” represents

the initial likelihood of voting (constant), and x 1, x 2, x 3, and x 4represent psychological benefits,

time costs, monetary costs, and information costs, respectively. Establishing a polling place

would increase the psychological benefits of voting as it would make students feel good about

themselves because they participated in the democratic process and contributed to society.

Also, by giving RI residents the ability to vote at their school, it will give them a sense of

belonging and community, thus benefiting their psyche. Creating a polling place at URI would

also greatly decrease the time and monetary costs of voting for students. Instead of having to

make the time during their day to travel to their home polling district and back, students would

only have to give a few minutes of their time to vote on-campus. Also, traveling to their home

polling district requires students to pay transportation costs. With the rising cost of gas, this

deters many from voting. However, voting on campus would be free of cost. Finally,

establishing a polling place at URI would decrease the information cost of voting as free

newspapers are provided throughout the campus to skim prior to voting instead of students

having to read before traveling home to vote and retaining the information for a lengthy period

of time. When all factors of the equation are considered and combined, the likelihood of RI

resident-student voting would greatly increase if a polling place was to be created at URI.

On a simpler level than the calculus of voting, people are going to be more likely to vote

if it is more convenient for them. URI already has multiple venues that could easily

accommodate the voting process. The ballroom in the Memorial Union, for example, is a

centrally located area which can be accessed by people of all needs. As it houses a plethora of
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student services such as dining, the mailroom, the bookstore, etc, it’s very likely that students

would enter the memorial union anyway on an average day. Thus, the act of voting is

integrated into one’s daily activity versus having to make a special trip/exude the effort to drive

home for a process that only takes 5-10 minutes. Additionally, by establishing a polling place on

campus, it will make students feel as if their vote is valued and therefore lead them to vote.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the United State’s population currently lies at

310,943,230 people. That’s 310,943,230 potential voters. When faced with such a staggering

population, many college students are left with the enduring question, “does my vote really

matter?” With a total enrollment of 19,102,184 people in degree-granting institutions in Fall

2008 (Digest of Education Statistics 2009), it’s clear that that vote of the college student does

matter and has the potential to significantly sway the results of an election. URI has 13,000

undergraduate students and 3,000 graduate students enrolled, making a total of 16,000

enrolled students. Out of the 16,000, 60% are Rhode Island residents. As such, this leaves a

potential 9,600 votes to be gained if this part of the electorate is mobilized through the

establishment of a polling place here at URI. Additionally, by establishing a polling place at URI,

the state of Rhode Island would be reaching out to the student population, exemplifying that

their vote is important to both the state, as well as the nation. By showing students that their

vote really does count, they are then much more likely to be politically active and vote.

On a more personal level for students, establishing a polling place will directly benefit

URI as a university as well as a community. On Election Day, people vote for so much more than

simply their representatives. Often, additional questions and propositions are asked on the
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bottom of the ballot. This occurred during this past 2010 election through Proposition 2 and it

directly affected URI. Proposition 2 concerned whether or not URI would receive federal

funding to build a new chemistry building. Fortunately for the university and its community, the

proposition was passed and the school has received its necessary funding. However, if there

was a polling place on campus, there would have been the potential for a 9,600 vote cushion as

students would be predisposed to vote for anything that would benefit their school. Despite all

of the surmounting evidence, in these tough economic times some people are more concerned

with crunching numbers rather than empowering and mobilizing the college-student electorate.

Just like anything else in this world, creating and maintaining a polling place requires

money. You need to rent the space in which the voting takes place, pay poll workers, and

obtain voting machines. While these financial issues might present an issue in other districts,

the financial cost would actually be quite low in establishing a polling place at URI. The ballroom

of the Memorial Union, a 5000 square foot venue, would be available to rent for $550.

However, the Union Board waives the usage fee for URI recognized organizations or

departments. One can speculate that they would also be willing to waive the fee for elections.

Additionally, unlike utilizing primary or secondary schools as many districts do, classes and the

educational process would not be disrupted. In regards to poll workers, a minimum of three

workers must be present and paid at the polls: a warden, clerk, and supervisor. In 2010, poll

workers in South Kingston made either $200 as a warden or clerk or $175 as a supervisor, and

also must be provided a meal (Rhode Island Board of Elections 2010). Their meal cost would

consist of a few dollars, if that, as the dining halls are available to provide their meals. These

pay rates are the highest in all of Rhode Island. However, the remaining necessary poll workers
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such as aides to the elderly or disabled are volunteers. With URI located in a town full of college

students in addition to the general population of South Kingston, there would not be an issue

getting the necessary amount of volunteers to run the polls. In the end, $1175 in the worst case

financial scenario is a small price for the state of Rhode Island to pay in order to gain thousands

of votes. Finally, the state of RI is gradually phasing out the optical scan voting machines and

attempting to convert to the touch-screen direct recording electronic (DRE). Whenever a DRE is

put in place, it’s replacing an optical scan machine. These replaced machines could be then

recycled to a new district in need of machines, in this case, the potential district at URI. This

wouldn’t cause the state to incur any kind of significant additional cost as they already have the

resource on hand, regardless of whether or not URI establishes a polling place.

So in the end, will college students answer their call to civic duty? It is impossible to

predict the behavior of everyone, but for the vast majority one thing is certain: establishing a

polling place for Rhode Island residents who attend URI will greatly increase voter turnout and

the overall likelihood of students to vote. The final outcome of the calculus of voting, an

increased convenience level, a newfound sense of political empowerment, direct benefit to the

university, and low overall financial burden to the state of Rhode Island all lead to this potential

increase. It is high time to take action and end this political lethargy. It is time for college

students to be permitted to easily remove the proverbial beeswax from their ears and at last

enjoy the sweet siren call to duty for America’s democratic system.