As the 2024 U.S. presidential election approaches, Yale Votes: A Student Initiative (YVSA)–a Dwight Hall member group–has renewed its efforts to register Yale students to vote and to encourage participation in electoral politics. A non-partisan, entirely student-run organization, YVSA is unaffiliated with Yale Votes, which is an initiative run by Yale’s administration—though it works closely with Yale Votes on registration efforts and receives some funding from Yale’s Office of the Secretary and Vice President for University Life.
While YVSA has existed since 2021, the upcoming presidential election has led to more active outreach by the organization, as well as more interest among the student body. During this semester, YVSA has engaged students through tabling in high-traffic areas of campus like Beinecke Plaza and Cross Campus, hosting watch parties for the presidential and vice presidential debates, and collaborating with first-year counselors to organize voting-themed duty nights aimed at registering first-year students to vote.
Additionally, YVSA has hosted events with fraternities, sororities, and cultural centers. When the Chinese American Students Association held their Mid-Autumn Festival, for instance, YVSA used the opportunity to table and teach students about mail-in voting. YVSA has also maintained an active social media presence at @yalevotes.studentinitiative, even interviewing Yale College Dean Pericles Lewis and Yale President Maurie McInnis.
According to YVSA Vice President Julia Lin ’26, energy around the November election has led to renewed interest in voting among students. “I tabled [for YVSA] a lot last semester, and the energy just was not that high,” Julia described. “…I think the key difference of this semester from last semester was that this semester a lot of people are just coming up to our tables and asking, ‘How can I get my absentee ballot?’ or ‘How can I register to vote?’”
YVSA President Alex Moore ’26 also explained how YVSA plans to turn this momentum into long-term, sustained voter engagement. “We are really trying to capitalize on [current excitement] because the research shows that students who vote in their first election in college are way more likely to vote in future elections and become lifetime voters,” he said. “So the more people we can get engaged right now, the more likely they will stick with it.”
Alex added that the organization has seen extraordinary success in reaching out to students this semester. He estimates that the organization has helped 600 to 700 students register to vote, but also emphasizes that registering people is far from the only way YVSA makes a difference.
“Not every interaction we have is literally getting someone registered to vote,” Alex explained. “It might be directing them to the right resource, or sending them the website that they need to go to later, or emailing them a PDF that they need to print out.” All in all, Alex believes that around 2,000 students have interacted with YVSA in a substantial way this semester.
To Alex and Julia, the value of YVSA cannot be understated. Yale “is a place where a lot of people have strong opinions and care a lot about things that they work on in school or outside of school,” Alex said. “It is really critical to express your views by voting and to realize that to not vote is to cede what power you have as a citizen to other people who do not necessarily share your interests. And so I think it is a duty of students to vote.”
Julia added that voting can also empower those disillusioned with the status quo. “A lot of Gen Z can feel very unmotivated or pessimistic about politics,” she observed. “Voting, at least, is one active form of engagement that you can do to try and make the change that you want to see.”
Dwight Hall’s support has been crucial to YVSA’s efforts. Alex explained that from funding to logistics, Dwight Hall is always available to help. “It is the little things,” he began. “It is having a table so that we can set up on Cross Campus. It is having a space to store all of our random materials. It is being able to print out hundreds and hundreds of absentee ballot and voter registration forms. It is the funding that we received from Dwight Hall to buy stamps so that students do not have to go buy their own stamps to mail their requests.”
“Dwight Hall has been phenomenal with their support, and we could not have done so many of our events without Dwight Hall,” Julia concluded.
Yale Votes: A Student Initiative embodies the Engage pillar of Dwight Hall’s Engage, Grow, Advance program delivery model. As part of the Engage pillar, Dwight Hall member groups like YVSA work to connect students to their larger communities in productive ways. Through its registration and education efforts, YVSA supports Dwight Hall’s mission to increase Yale students’ civic engagement within the New Haven community and nationwide.
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