Unity Center encourages youth civic participation through voter registration initiatives

Unity Center encourages youth civic participation through voter registration initiatives Categories: News Unity Center encourages youth civic participation through voter registration initiatives By Isabella Edghill, Assistant News Editor October 14, 2026 Raessler Guthrie The Unity Center helps students prepare to vote ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Content warning: This story mentions sexual assault. Anyone seeking help or support can contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-4673.  Voter registration initiatives, spearheaded by the Unity Center and Martin Luther King Scholar Program, are helping Ithaca College students prepare for the 2026 midterm elections.  Cliff-Simon Vital, director of the Unity Center, is co-chair of the Voter Registration Task Force, the team that has historically led voter registration initiatives at IC, like tabling at events. Vital said that at the start of Fall 2026, he enlisted the MLK Scholars to help with registration initiatives after the task force dwindled to just two people. Vital said each MLK Scholar is expected to participate in at least one tabling event. The new voter registration initiative officially kicked off Sept. 15, National Voter Registration Day. However, ahead of that, the group tabled at events like the Unity Center Cookout and new student orientation events. According to a Sept. 18 Intercom post, the team has helped 49 students register to vote, helped an additional 97 people confirm they were already registered and helped three people apply to receive an absentee ballot. Vital said that in addition to tabling, he hopes to get all the MLK Scholars trained in canvassing so they can distribute information about the voting process door-to-door in dorm buildings on campus. “We want this to be a neutral space that everyone can get the information they need to be able to make an informed decision,” Vital said. “If we ever expect to see a change, we got to start inside the house.” Sophomore Olivia Adams, an MLK Scholar cohort leader, said she has noticed people who approach the voter registration table seem excited, especially younger students who may be preparing to vote for the first time. “We’re not telling anyone how to vote,” Adams said. “We’re just telling people to vote because that’s one of the biggest powers we have as citizens who aren’t involved in … [the] federal government.” Vital said that when students complain about issues like gas prices or access to healthcare, he often asks them if they voted. “It’s important for us to attack … this age group in a way that helps them to understand that they have power too,” Vital said. “If they don’t utilize that power, then other age groups are gonna continue to push their initiatives and what they want to see in the world.”  While youth voters have historically had lower turnout than any other age group, research shows the trend has been improving. The Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement found youth, aged 18 to 29, are in a period of sustained high turnout. In 2018, 28% of eligible youth voters voted in the midterm elections, and in 2022, 23% of youth voted. These are the two years with the highest youth turnout for a midterm election in 30 years. Jennifer McAndrew, senior director of communications and planning at the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life at Tufts University, the home of CIRCLE, said considering the 2014 midterm elections as a starting point, the previous two midterm elections in 2018 and 2022 have had considerably higher youth turnout. “I think it’s really important to really push back on the narrative that young people are apathetic,” McAndrew said. “They have issues that they care about. … They want to be engaged and are interested in paying attention. It’s really up to all of us to make sure that they are welcomed into participating.” An April 2026 report from CIRCLE, in collaboration with When We All Vote, found more than half of youth are extremely likely to vote in this year’s midterm elections. With the youth electorate being nearly 50 million people, CIRCLE found there are many prominent elections across the country where youth voters can potentially determine the outcome. McAndrew said the research shows young people are motivated to vote. “The top issues for young people that we’re finding in our surveys are cost of living–kind of issues,” McAndrew said. “They’re feeling like things aren’t going well for the country, and they want to have a hand in fixing it. … Their economic priorities are very real. They’re not just an abstract thing, and that’s driving their motivation to vote.”  In New York state, the number of registered youth voters increased 5% between September 2022 and September 2026. The work of the registration task force at IC aims to increase that number further. Vital said his goal is to help register 251 people to vote after registering 249 last year. The Unity Center named their voter registration work the Jo Ann Bland Voter Registration Mobilization & Education Initiative after civil rights activist Jo Ann Bland, who passed away in February 2026. The MLK Scholars met with Bland each year during their Civil Rights trip to Selma, Alabama. Vital said every generation of MLK Scholars for 20 years has gotten to meet Bland, and he aims to keep her legacy alive with the registration initiative. “[She] and the other ancestors who have done so much for us to get to the point where we can vote without a literacy test and without an exam and without repercussions, without bias,” Vital said. “If there’s anything you’ll know about Jo Ann Bland, it’s that she died fighting for voter registration and the right for us to vote freely.” Adams said that meeting Bland on her Civil Rights trip in Fall 2025 was a moving experience. “Of course, she’s going to get recognition from us, but I wish she got recognition from the world because she’s done so much to make the world a better place,” Adams said. “So that’s what we’re trying to do; get her recognition at least at Ithaca College.” Senior Jessie Romero Silver, an MLK Scholar and event coordinator for the IC Young Feminists Collective, said ICYFC is planning to collaborate with the MLK Scholars on voter registration initiatives in the weeks leading up to the election and help to carpool fellow students to the polls on election day. “People are dying within the United States and beyond our borders, and people don’t realize how much of an impact our political leaders make on those decisions,” Romero Silver said. “Where you put your vote matters, and those are the people who will be representing you. They decide where your money goes.” At a rally organized by ICFYC on Oct. 8 in support of Jane Doe, the anonymous student alleging she was gang raped on Cornell University’s campus in 2024, numerous student speakers encouraged attendees to vote. “We’ve seen how our generation is coming out and supporting each other in these large-scale events,” Romero Silver said. “But at the end of the day, protesting is not enough. … Any demonstration will only get you so far.” Part-time IC student Eliot Larson said at the rally that voting is essential to making change. “Vote for Jane Doe,” Larson said. “Vote for your friend who was raped. Vote for women and those vulnerable to sexual violence. This is where change begins.” McAndrew said on-campus voter initiatives are important for increasing information about voting and reducing barriers students may face as they try to exercise their right to vote. Differing state-by-state rules, in addition to difficulty getting transportation or time off school and work to vote, can all be barriers for students. Vital said he hopes to help give students rides to the polls on election day and hopes to one day have a voting location on campus. He said the Unity Center’s registration initiatives will continue even after election day. “If you’re not registered to vote, stop by the Unity Center,” Vital said. “It takes you longer to get your coffee at one of the shops. … Our goal as a Unity Center is to disrupt systemic barriers and getting access to vote.” View Story Comments 0 Like This Story Share on Facebook Share on X Email this Story Print this Story Leave a Comment Tags: MLK Scholars Voter registration Donate to The Ithacan $1,925 $3,000 Contributed Our Goal Your donation will support The Ithacan's student journalists in their effort to keep the Ithaca College and wider Ithaca community informed. Your contribution will go toward covering our annual website hosting costs and supplementing other expenses, including travel to conferences. Donate More to Discover More in News 2026 candidates for Governor and Lieutenant Governor of New York 2026 New York State Assembly District 125 Candidate 2026 New York State Senate District 52 Candidates 2026 candidates for NY Congressional District 19 2026 New York State Comptroller candidates Ithaca College proposes plan to merge from five to three schools About the Contributors Isabella Edghill, Assistant News Editor Raessler Guthrie, Design Editor Formerly: Assistant Design Editor – Fall 2025