Questions About Voting and Registration? Chart Your Path Here.

More than 50 million members of Gen Z are eligible to vote this year, giving this voting bloc hefty power to shape the upcoming midterm election. The question is: Will they show up at the polls?

Over three-quarters of University of Maryland upperclassmen plan to, according to a Campus Assessment Working Group survey last year, and now the UMD civic engagement initiative TerpsVote is ramping up efforts to make it easier for Terps to cast a ballot. 

“When young people show up, they shift outcomes,” said Courtney Holder, assistant director of leadership and community service-learning at the Adele H. Stamp Student Union and TerpsVote coalition member. “Voting is one way to make sure the people deciding for your community reflect it. It's not the only lever, and not a complete fix, but it's a meaningful one.”

Over 40,000 open seats are up for grabs on Nov. 3, including all 435 in the U.S. House of Representatives seat, 35 in the U.S. Senate, and thousands more at the state and local levels.  Voters will face more than 160 ballot measures in 40 states, along with 39 state and territorial gubernatorial elections. Marylanders will elect a governor and weigh in on ballot measures focusing on redistricting, bonds, and fees on alcohol and tobacco.

TerpsVote, which includes faculty, staff and students, oversees the campus’s TurboVote platform, where you can register to vote, request a mail-in (absentee) ballot, see a sample ballot for your district, find your polling site, and more. Unlike the state Board of Elections website, it allows students to type in their campus address and get the corresponding mailing address for registering and polling locations.

In addition, TerpsVote will host a voting resource center from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Oct. 14-Nov. 3 in the Leadership and Community Service-Learning Office (1110 Stamp) with free printing, stamps and envelopes for students who requested ballots by email. 

During National Voter Education Week (Oct. 5-9), Holder encourages students to: 

• Register or update their registration by Maryland’s Oct. 13 deadline to save time when voting. That will help relieve some of the strain on the local board of elections caused by the high volume of provisional ballots cast in polling locations near colleges.
• Request a ballot ASAP and return it well in advance of the Nov. 3 postmark deadline to avoid any potential delays in postal delivery. 

Need a cheat seat to navigate these instructions and deadlines? See the interactive and printable flow chart below: