With U.S. elections coming up this November, Brown wants to give eligible students every avenue to cast their ballots. Brown Votes, a University initiative, is helping simplify the process.
The initiative’s goal is to reduce barriers to voting, members of the organization said. The initiative brought to Brown a platform called TurboVote, which facilitates voter registration across the country. Anjelica Smith, a senior director at Democracy Works, is helping deploy TurboVote at colleges across the United States.
While “16 million youth have aged into the electorate since 2020,” Smith said, voter registration rates are far lower among young people.
TurboVote has also been integrated into MyAccount and the BrownU app “to help simplify the process,” said Logan Tullai ’25, the chair of advocacy for Brown Votes and the national president of Every Vote Counts.
Brown Votes is housed in the Swearer Center. Mary Jo Callan, the head of the center, highlighted the importance of community engagement at not just the national level but also in state and local elections.
“Voting is one of the most important pathways to social change,” Callan said. “We often overlook the power of state governments. The decisions that local governments make, those are the decisions that affect our day-to-day lives.”
Brown Votes has made a number of strides since its founding as a student group. For instance, election day at Brown is now a holiday, which was difficult to coordinate and accomplish, said Austin Wilson, a manager for community-engaged learning at the center. “There’s a huge amount of student passion and student direction” for this initiative, he added.
Brown Votes participated in new student orientation this year, and they currently hold non-partisan, issue-oriented information sessions. “If your issue is the second amendment,” Callan said, the presentations inform students that “political offices have a say over that issue.”
Tullai highlighted that students can choose where to cast their ballot — here in Rhode Island or wherever they call home.
“If a student develops a habit of voting in college, they will continue that habit throughout their life,” Wilson said.
Teddy Fisher is a staff writer who studies International and Public Affairs and is passionate about law, national security and sports. He enjoys playing basketball, running and reading in his free time.
