Two years after the 2016 presidential election, National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 25 prepared students for the upcoming midterm elections.
For organizations like Save the Children Action Network that are active at USC, the day was a chance to get students engaged in politics, according to the organization's vice president and third-year early childhood education student Chloe Morrison.
SCAN sponsored USC's participation in National Voter Registration Day and shared its message about child welfare through their events. SCAN is dedicated to being the “political voice for kids,” according to promotional material.
USC will not hold classes on Election Day, so students can travel home to vote in their counties or go to polling locations in Columbia if local. Leading up to Election Day, out-of-state students have the opportunity to vote with an absentee ballot until their home state's deadline.
"We just want to make sure that people are registered so that they can exercise their right,” Morrison said.
Fourth-year public health student Jordan Puckett-Williams said he never voted before this upcoming election, but will vote in the midterms so he can voice his political opinions.
“Everybody’s got opinions and I feel like they need to actually look into things and vote and do that,” Puckett-Williams said. “And I actually, myself, I haven’t ever voted and I was like, ‘I need to get on this’ because I know it’s important.”
The last day to register to vote in person in South Carolina is Oct. 5. Applicants can apply by mail in South Carolina through Oct. 9 and online through Oct. 7.
If a student is out-of-state or lives in a different county, voting by mail through an absentee ballot is a possibility. The deadline to apply for voting absentee in South Carolina is Nov. 2. South Carolina's general election will happen on Nov. 6, with polls open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m.
Morrison is excited to continue to promote voter registration until the general election. She believes college students are underrepresented in politics and can work to change that phenomenon by voting.
“Why not do what you can?,” she said.