KWU Student Voter Registration

On Tuesday and Thursday of last week, current Coyote Tiana Marion set up a table in the SAC where students could register to vote. Tiana is partnered with Loud Light, a voter access advocacy group. Their mission is to “engage, educate, and empower individuals from underrepresented populations to build community power that has an impact on decision makers”. Their focus is to increase youth civic participation in Kansas. 

A link to their website can be found here: Loud Light 

Tiana and Loud Light

In an interview with Morgan during the event, she first talked about how she got started with Loud Light. She had a friend at Washburn University who was a part of Loud Light and talked to her about joining. She applied for a fellowship and after a two-day training course she was off and running. This wasn’t here first time involved in politics as she had been part of other organizations in high school. 

Part of her duties are tabeling and canvasing for Loud Light which is a nonpartisan organization. She also goes around to classrooms talking about Loud Light and educating students about voting and giving them an opportunity to register. 

Student Participation

She said, “We’ve had varying levels of success at these events”. But when asked about how the event was going on Thursday, she said “it’s been a good success”, and “the pizza has helped a little bit”. There were about a dozen pizza boxes at the tables. Students would talk to Tiana about voting then be able to take a slice or two. 

One student who walked by was current senior student and baseball player Ritter Steinman. He talked about how he “already registered in California” and “got his mail in ballot from his parents”. He was able to get some pizza although he didn’t register. 

Encouraging Local Voting

Tiana also talked about and stressed how voting is not just for the presidential race. “Voting for local races is just as important and kids don’t always realize that”. She mentioned that there are a lot of potholes around here that need to be fixed too, and participation can help with that.

Tiana was excited about the student’s participation at Kansas Wesleyan during her two sessions. She said, “Students were excited and willing to participate and asking a lot of questions”. She had over twenty students on Thursday that either registered or got paperwork to register in their home state.

This was the last table event her and Loud Light were hosting because registration for voting closes on October 15th.