Virginia Tech opens a site for students to sign up to vote

Blacksburg, Virginia – Less than two months remain until the general election, and Virginia Tech has introduced a tool to streamline the registration process for students.

With the introduction of the new “All In To Vote” online registration site, educators and students now have access to information on the voting procedure as well as the opportunity to complete the preliminary registration paperwork at their convenience.

Once the basic information is completed, visitors are redirected to the appropriate state website or mailing address to finish and submit their voter registration forms.

For students studying overseas or out-of-state, the portal is especially crucial since it provides them with faster and better access.

“Instead of trying to figure out where my state website is housed and doing some Google searching through that, the students who may be in other states, that we don’t have as many students on campus, are still able to get that information and get to the spot that they need to go to a lot quicker,” said Jes Davis, Associate Director of VT Engage.

Nonpartisan data on every candidate is also available on the platform. According to Davis, this will benefit younger voters who might not be aware of current events or even the candidates running.

“In addition to finding sources and places where we can go to get information through that and really be able to sift through and then decide what it is that we want to say with our vote, with our voices, and what that looks like more broadly, I think that we have to work together to talk about the great issues of the day,” Davis stated.

Student voting rates at Virginia Tech are often higher than those at other universities, and the university is recognized nationwide as a Voter Friendly Campus.

According to a campus study, slightly more than 70% of the over 90% of students who were registered to vote cast ballots in the most recent presidential election in 2020.

According to Davis, the new voting registration portal will also encourage greater community involvement and start a dialogue about voting.

Since this is another year with a presidential election, we’re hoping to see some sort of return to discussion and conversation. We want people to get involved, not just register to vote; we also want students to cast ballots,” Davis stated.

The portal will be accessible for future elections in addition to the one that is scheduled for this year’s presidential election.