WGRC members Justin Atwater (left) and Genevieve Keelen (right) at their table for the Voter Power festival, sharing bracelet making supplies.
BARBARA VASQUEZ / THE QUADRANGLE
By Barbara Vasquez, Asst. Production Editor
The Quadrangle was alive with music, food and voting information this past Tuesday for the Voter Power Festival, headed by the Jaspers Vote campaign.
An array of organizations both on and off campus were featured at this festival, including We Are College Music (WRCM), the Women and Gender Resource Center (WGRC) and representatives from Eleanor’s Legacy, a pro-choice organization. The festival’s main focus was on spreading voting information, and these clubs showed out to help the cause.
“We do have a few different clubs set up at some tables, like a table handing out free constitutions for Constitution Day, but it’s [the Voter Power Festival] mostly to get people more engaged in voting, and spreading more voter information,” Samantha Pavlick, a student tabling for the Jasper Votes organization, said.
Member of the WGRC, Justin Atwater, tabled for the organization while offering students the chance to make bracelets.
“As a member of the Women and Gender Resource Center, we wanted to make sure our campus is active in the vote of this upcoming election and having their voices heard,” Atwater said. “We want to advocate for women’s rights and gender specific rights, and share reasons as to why voting in this election may be more important than previous ones.”
Eleanor’s Legacy, a group that advocates for women’s bodily autonomy, shared pamphlets advocating for the importance of Prop 1 and encouraged students to flip over their ballots in November and vote for more than just the presidential candidates.
“Prop 1 is an amendment to the New York Constitution that protects our [female] rights and reproductive freedom,” Abigail Martin, the district leader in the 81st district and the political director for Eleanor’s Legacy, said. “Essentially, it makes abortion lock solid and it makes it illegal for the government to discriminate against New Yorkers based on sex, gender, pregnancy status, age and ability.”
Student intern at Eleanor’s Legacy, Elle Feneide, had hope that this festival would help distribute more awareness for this cause.
“I think that stuff like this [the Voter Power Festival] is better for that [spreading awareness], just in the fact that you’re actually interacting with people,” Feneide said. “Face to face interactions with people really helps move the information along better. This idea was great, and it’s a really good way to spread information.”
Cassidy Recio, another student with the WGRC table, shared similar thoughts on the effectiveness of the festival.
“We [Manhattan University] do have to do a better job in encouraging political literacy,” Recio said. “But it starts with events like this, so people can be informed and people can be a part of it.”
Margaret Groarke, Ph.D, is head of the Jaspers Vote Campaign, and was a main advocate for the Voter Power Festival. She shared her thoughts on why spreading voter awareness is important, especially to the students at Manhattan University.
“I think it’s very important for young people’s voices to be heard in politics,” Groarke said. “Young people have different concerns and different issues than older people, and those issues and concerns are going to be forgotten if young people aren’t seen as a big voting block.”
The Jaspers Vote campaign has had a history of success in encouraging student voting. According to a campus report done on MU back in 2021, the school had increased student participation in the presidential elections by 18 points, from 41.3% of students voting in the 2016 presidential election to 59.6% of students voting in the 2020 election.
“I always think we can do more and improve, and we’re trying to encourage that,” Groarke said. “I’m a big believer that everybody should try to make their voice heard. This is a totally nonpartisan effort. We’re not trying to tell anybody who to vote for, but we want everybody to think about what they want their life to be like over the next four years, and what they want the country be like over the next four years, and to vote for the people they think are most likely to help make that happen.”