DeKALB – At noon Wednesday, a march was held to encourage students to vote, leading them to the early voting poll located on the main floor of the Holmes Student Center.
Starting at the Music Building, the NIU Marching Band, Division of Student Affairs and interested students marched to MLK Commons while the band played songs and cheered on participants.
The crowd was then taken into the Duke Ellington Ballroom, where they could speak with the volunteers and coordinators of the event on any inquiries they might have about the voting process.
The Division of Student Affairs set up craft stations where the students could decorate cookies or make bead bracelets before they made their way to the polling location right across from the ballroom.
Michaela Holtz, the executive director for Strategy, Impact and Academic Partnerships for the division of Student Affairs, spoke about the event.
“All students who are registered in DeKalb County can vote early. So we put this event to really bring students together to celebrate the opportunity to vote and our democracy. Now, we have activities here that they can participate in, and then there’s the early voting location here in Holmes Student Center, so the students can actually go and vote today,” Holtz said.
Holtz provided voting information for students not registered in DeKalb County as well as some resources they can use to aid them in their voting.
“We have Huskies Vote, which is the NIU initiative to encourage students to register to vote, to educate about voting in general and how to become an active citizen, and then also turn out to vote. For all students registered to vote outside of DeKalb County, they can either use the resources on the Huskies Vote website and look up and find information where they can look up their polling place,” Holtz said. “In fact, the Illinois Board of Election office will actually provide them an opportunity to look up their polling place and also their early voting place. Every county has permanent early voting locations and also temporary early voting locations. NIU is a temporary early voting location. If they are out of state, they hopefully are already registered to vote and requested a mail-in ballot and were able to send that in. They can update their registration to DeKalb with their NIU local address, and they could actually vote here.”
Early voting at the Holmes Student Center ends Friday.
Holtz spoke more on the importance of students asking questions when it comes to voting.
“Having students be in a community where they can ask questions about registering to vote, how to find information about a ballot, so they can make informed decisions. We want to be here and support them. We know that lots of students, if they don’t vote, it’s because they are missing some of this important information, or they are just not sure if they have the right information,” Holtz said.
Students can utilize Huskies Vote to research candidates for their area and become more informed. Huskies Vote is nonpartisan and does not include biases towards any party.
Maria Martinez, a sophomore human development and family sciences major, explained her views on voting as well as the importance of the event.
“I think it brings awareness to voting and how it’s stressful. Keep up with each candidate and their views. Also, your vote matters. At the end of the day, there’s people who can’t vote and wish they could, so it’s important for everyone to vote,” Martinez said.
Princess Rogers, a senior political science major, explained why voting is so important.
“Students are an underrepresented demographic in terms of voting, especially just like in the younger generations,” Rogers said.
Ja’kobe Jones, a junior finance major, explained why voting is important to him.
“As student leaders, we have the responsibility of letting students know the power that we hold, whether it be local government, student government or the United States government,” Jones said.
Jim Marter, a Republican running for Congress in Illinois’ 14th district, advised people to vote, as they have the right to do so.
“You have the right to vote, to pick your representation. You should do that. It’s that simple, right? I mean, you have a right to do that here. There are many places in the world that never had that,” Marter said.
