With Election Day on the horizon, four ƽ岻 College classmates are driving voter registration and building enthusiasm on campus around the electoral process.
Under the guidance of Professor of Politics Amanda Hollis-Brusky, Sydney Cottrell ’26, Lexi Duffy ’26, Katharine Turcke ’26 and Ellie Urfrig ’26 are leading the Claremont League of Women Voters this academic year and promoting civic engagement ahead of what will be theirs and most of their peers’ first time voting in a general election.
After collecting more than 150 email addresses at September’s Club Fair, the four students regularly welcome three dozen peers to weekly meetings where they talk politics and brainstorm ways to reach as many young voters around the Claremont Colleges as possible.
Watch parties the League planned for the presidential and vice-presidential debates drew hundreds, and the group has set up tables outside assorted campus events to encourage civic participation. Off campus, Cottrell, Duffy, Turcke and Urfrig are collaborating with other League chapters and organizations to spread enthusiasm around voting.
On Friday, October 4, the League will host a Vote Fest from 4 to 6 p.m. on Stover Walk where all are invited to register to vote, request absentee ballots, grab postage and/or write a letter to swing state voters.
The League and the Politics Department will also watch election night results on a big screen on Marston Quad.
“Politics can sometimes feel scary or isolating regardless of whether people have the same political beliefs,” Turcke says. “Being in a space where you can be together and have your voice heard helps combat how isolating politics can feel. Politics impact us all and if you have a community around you, it’s easier to feel empowered.”
Turcke, a politics and English double major by way of Boise, Idaho, registered to vote in her home state as soon as she could and says she feels “lucky to grow up in a time when people are much more aware of how they can be politically involved.”
Cottrell, Duffy and Urfrig also call other states home and share a similar zest for being involved civically despite being in California. In addition to registering Claremont Colleges students to vote, the League helps out-of-state students navigate the process of requesting absentee ballots from their respective home states.
Cottrell, a politics major from Portland, Oregon, interned with the Portland League of Women Voters this summer and sees no better time than the present for young people to make their voices heard.
“We want to continue the momentum that the election has generated in civic engagement and hold debriefing sessions on how the outcome of races and initiatives will affect certain issues,” Cottrell says. “A lot of what the League does is local level. Right now, there’s such a national focus because of the November election, but after that, we want students to know how they can get involved locally.”
As a public policy analysis major, Duffy enjoys talking politics with others—no matter their party affiliation.
As a nonpartisan group, she says, the League has an obligation to the community to encourage thoughtful policy discussion. As such, Duffy adds, the League has become a resource on campus for faculty, administrators and students from around the Claremont Colleges to understand the issues at hand and become involved.
“Politics is this intersection of passionate people,” the Milford, Iowa, native says. “It gets me excited to get other people excited. Politics is such an easy subject matter to latch onto given its intersection with identity, socio-economic status, so many parts that cut to a person’s core.”
Urfrig, a politics major from Carbondale, Colorado, hopes to see a record number of young voters turn out next month. Nearly 80% of ƽ岻 College students voted in 2020, a +19.3 change from 2016 and well above the national rate of 66% for college students that year, according to the National Study of Learning, Voting and Engagement.
Urfrig sees power in young people expressing enthusiasm and excitement around the electoral process and says the League strives to educate all comers on smaller races that don’t get the publicity of the marquee ones.
Above all, she wants the League to build community within the Claremont Colleges, especially among those new to the ebb and flow of election season.
“It can feel intimidating to educate yourself,” Urfrig says. “But if you have peers who can show you through the process and get you information in a nonpartisan way, it empowers others and makes the process less frightening.”
“I hope to see this club flourish this semester and for years to come.”