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Alejandra Afanador, 19, spent the summer as an "RU Voting Ambassador," according to Rutgers Today. The sophomore political science major will keep volunteering through Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5.
The honors college student on a pre-law track said she wants to motivate 18-to-29-year-olds to vote and become politically active.
"I've simply come to realize that there is such disillusionment in the government and this is across the political spectrum as well," Afanador said to Rutgers Today. "No matter what stance people find themselves in, there is the all-too-normalized sentiment that politicians and the representatives who are meant to represent the people tend not to address the actual concerns of the electorate."
The ambassador program is run by the university's Center for Youth Political Participation and the Eagleton Institute of Politics. Afanador was among several student volunteers who spent about 40 hours operating voter registration tables during new student orientations.
The program will continue its work leading up to New Jersey's voter registration deadline of Tuesday, Oct. 15.
"We're nonpartisan, so we don't tell people how to vote, but the main thing is we just want to get people civically engaged," said Afanador. "We want to get students involved because of historically low turnout."
Among people 18-to-24, 53.9 percent of women and 49 percent of men voted in the 2020 Presidential election, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers. Those numbers lag behind older age groups, especially voters 65 and up.
Rutgers ambassadors have helped more than 1,700 incoming students register to vote and access education resources.
"Young adults constitute a large portion of the eligible voting population, and their participation on Election Day will be consequential nationally but especially in swing states," said Elizabeth Matto, a research professor and director of the Eagleton Institute. "Not only do young adults need to make a plan to vote, but campaigns and organizations need to put the effort into mobilizing this highly important segment of the electorate."
According to a national poll that Monmouth University released on Tuesday, Sept. 17, about 54 percent of people 18-34 said they'll "definitely" or "probably" vote for Vice President Kamala Harris, her strongest support among an age group. Former President Donald Trump had 35 percent support among people 18-34 in the same poll.
Regardless of whom someone backs, Afanador said young voters shouldn't be apathetic and should demand candidates address their most important issues.
"There's this thing called the collective action problem," said Afanador. "It's basically saying like, 'Oh, if you're in a group, you think that your personal efforts don't matter or that they don't have an impact.' The notion that your personal effort is too small to influence the outcome, so why bother, which I think is definitely not the case. And, in turn, it actually ends up negatively affecting the group as a whole.
"Your voice does matter, and that's why you need to get out and actually voice it.”
Afanador is also the secretary for the Latin American Student Organization, a political chair for the Latino Student Council, and an editor of the Rutgers Undergraduate Law Review.
You can click here to register to vote in New Jersey or to check your voter registration status.
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