Ahead of the general election in November 2024, Ithaca College students, faculty and staff, along with support from community organizations, formed a Voter Registration Task Force to encourage voter engagement among students. This year, however, is considered an “off-year.” The elections in Ithaca in November will focus primarily on local offices, including in the county legislature and the common council, and student voter initiatives at IC are largely inactive this semester.
In 2024, the task force held a voter registration drive, educated students about topics such as how to vote by mail and even helped to facilitate rides to the polls on election day. Cathy Michael, research and instruction librarian at the college and task force chair, said she hopes to ramp up the voter engagement initiatives again before the midterm elections in 2026.
The 2026 midterm elections mark the halfway point of the current presidential term and are when major congressional elections take place, giving voters a chance to have a say in which party controls Congress. All of the House of Representatives will be up for election, as will a third of the seats in the Senate. However, neither of New York’s two senators will be up for reelection in 2026.
Michael Trotti, professor in the Department of History and legal studies coordinator, said he wishes more people understood how impactful local offices are. Trotti said that although it may be an off year in national elections, local races are still pertinent in the lives of students.
“I think local elections are really important, but neither students nor most institutions focus on them nearly as much as the larger federal battles that we’re waging right now,” Trotti said. “In even years when you have the bigger elections, both in terms of state offices and especially in federal offices, there’s so much attention on it and students have a lot of attention on it.”
Without the same level of energy from students concerning the elections in Ithaca this fall, on-campus voter engagement initiatives are not as active. Trotti gave presentations in Ithaca seminar classes in Fall 2024 on voting-related issues, but is not doing the same this semester.
Voter engagement efforts on campus were supported by the Tompkins County League of Women Voters. In 2023, LWV contacted Michael, hoping to table at the college on National Voter Registration Day. This led to the creation of the Voter Registration Task Force at IC. LWV President Megan Nettleton said the league has held many registration drives on college campuses over the years.
“We really believe that everybody of all ages should play an active part in government and vote in all the elections,” Nettleton said. “It’s really important that college kids are involved in that.”
However, without a contact person on campus through the Voter Registration Task Force to help facilitate the partnership, Nettleton said they are not hosting any events at IC this year.
To be eligible to vote in Tompkins County, voters must be U.S. citizens, at least 18 years of age and have lived at their present address for at least 30 days. Voting eligibility requirements can vary by states and counties.
Michael said when she helped with voter registration in Fall 2024, one of the most common questions she received from students was whether they should register to vote in Tompkins County or in their home county.
There are a few options for students wanting to vote in their home state or local elections. Some states follow a vote-by-mail system in which every registered voter is automatically mailed a ballot. Other states, including New York, utilize absentee voting, which requires voters wanting to mail in a ballot to request to do so before a certain deadline. In New York, the deadline to request an absentee ballot is Oct. 25.
Despite a lack of on-campus initiatives, some students are still preparing to vote in November. Many first-year students can register to vote for the first time.
First-year student Jillian Schaible decided to register in their hometown in Pennsylvania. She said it was relatively easy to navigate the process of registering and requesting her mail-in ballot online.
“A lot of the decisions that I feel like are being made in small towns are not being made by the right people,” Schaible said.
Trotti said that while some students do register to vote in Tompkins County, they are not the majority.
“An awful lot of students are more tied to their own home communities, and that just makes sense,” Trotti said.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission found that mail-in voting made up about 30% of voter turnout in the 2024 election. The Census Bureau reported that 26.3% of voters aged 18 to 24 voted by mail last November. IC students can vote in local elections in their hometowns via vote by mail while living in Ithaca.
First-year student Hailey LaViolette said the process for requesting her mail-in ballot from Texas was complicated. She said there were many documents she had to submit to prove she was still a resident and had a valid reason for a mail-in ballot. She said the process is more difficult than it should be, but it was important to her to have her vote count in her home state.
“I would like to help flip Texas to be a certain political way,” LaViolette said. “Right now, I don’t really agree with how Texas has been treating [its] politics.”
Although the Voter Registration Task Force is inactive during the local elections, Michael said there are still plenty of resources students can use to stay informed about this year’s election and plan their vote. Ballotpedia offers a look at elections happening at the local, state and national level across the country. Vote.org and Vote411 provide an overview of voter registration information in all 50 states and tools to help students plan their vote.
Michael said students should call or visit the website for their local board of elections to get the most up-to-date information on races, deadlines and rules for mail-in or absentee voting. She has also compiled a guide on Political Communication and Voting, which includes resources to help students plan their vote and instructions on how to contact political representatives.
“It’s never too soon to get registered and get involved,” Michael said.
