Caption: Ballotpalooza on Alumni Lawn, as photographed on Sept. 17, 2024. (Hustler Multimedia/Faiza Islam)
Vandy Votes hosted Ballotpalooza on Sept. 17, National Voter Registration Day. This voter registration festival held on Alumni Lawn featured both on-campus and Nashville organizations and attracted over 300 students.
According to junior Ochuwa Garbua, the president of Vandy Votes, the idea for Ballotpalooza originated this past summer, when Vandy Votes’ executive board began planning out its schedule of events for the semester.
“We were thinking about ways to really get students excited about voting,” Garuba said. “It can be really discouraging for students who want to get involved in Tennessee and the whole voter registration process just makes it really tricky for students from all over to get registered to vote.”
Celeste Dorantes, senior adviser for Vandy Votes, said the idea originally began as a chance to collaborate with cultural organizations on why voting is important but then started getting bigger.
“I wanted this ultimately to be a project where students can come in, learn about why voting is important, see other perspectives from cultural organizations and the diverse Nashville civic organizations and get their questions answered,” Dorantes said. “The goal of Ballotpalooza is to get students registered to vote.”
Ballotpalooza gathered a wide array of organizations and perspectives on voting at the event. One side of Alumni Lawn was taken up by civic organizations from the broader Nashville community, including Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition Votes, Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors and The Equity Alliance. The other half was occupied by student organizations such as Association of Latin American Students, Women in Government and Vanderbilt Prison Project, among others.
Senior Lily Sims represented ALAS at Ballotpalooza and said the organization’s participation stemmed from them wanting the Latin American voice to be heard.
“We are promoting students to go out there to vote and increase the number of college students who are at the ballots,” Sims said.
Students expressed positive feedback about the event. Junior Emily Brady said she attended the event with two goals — learning how to get an absentee ballot and making sure she was registered to vote. Brady claimed that within minutes at Ballotpalooza, her mission was complete.
“They showed me this page called Turbo Vote that verified I was registered and showed my state’s process for absentee ballots,” Brady said.
For the upcoming election, the university is collaborating with Turbovote, an American non-profit website that seeks to expand voter turnout in order to increase student participation. Turbovote helps students register to vote, find polling places, research election issues and stay informed on election details.
Vandy Votes’s efforts aren’t stopping with Ballotpalooza. From now until election day, they plan to table at local colleges, libraries and student events like concerts.
“I think voting is the right that gives way to all other rights,” Garuba said.
Dorantes agreed, telling The Hustler that she believes democracy “thrives and works the best” when everyone votes.
“As long as many people vote as possible, we can have a more representative government and the interests of people can be better represented at the local, state and federal level,” Dorantes said.
Students were not the only attendees of the event. District 18 Council Member Tom Cash joined in on the efforts to increase youth voter participation, expressing his frustration with Tennessee turnout numbers.
“Tennessee is near the bottom in youth turnout for voting, with 15%, while the national average is 30%,” Cash said.
He mentioned that he started attending events similar to Ballotpalooza across schools in his district in hopes of sparking change.
