Ishira Kelsaw-Fletcher, a senior fashion studies major, will be traveling home to Michigan on Election Day to vote. 

This is the first year she has been able to make the almost four-hour drive without missing class because Election Day will be a non-instructional day at Columbia. In previous years, Columbia continued to hold classes on Election Day. 

“I think it’s a really great way to see change in your community, whether that be from a local, state or federal level,” Fletcher said. “Being able to go home and vote in a polling place is just a really cool plus of that.” 

According to a 2023 poll from the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement from Tufts University, only 18% of new voters aged 18 to 19 years of age voted in the 2022 election. Young voters aged 20 to 29 only cast ballots at a 24% rate.

The on-campus student voter engagement group Columbia Votes lobbied for the day off, hoping to give students more opportunities to get to the polls in person.

Sharon Bloyd-Peshkin, professor in the School of Communication and Culture and the faculty advisor and founder of Columbia Votes, said having Election Day off struck her as an opportunity for the school to encourage student civic participation beyond just voting. 

“It’s definitely easier to vote if you have Election Day off. It also allows for other things,” she said. “It allows students to be poll workers, or in some other ways work to help with the voting process to get involved with elections. So it just seemed like a natural opportunity.”

Columbia is unique in Illinois and in the country. The University of Illinois system still holds classes on Election Day as well as Illinois State University, DePaul University and Loyola University Chicago. Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville will not be in session on Nov. 5, while Southern Illinois University in Carbondale provides resources for students to register but still holds class. 

The civic project Day On Democracy maps colleges and universities that don’t hold classes on Election Day. It estimates that approximately 115 or 2.9% of all colleges and universities cancel classes on Election Day, although the number may not be accurate. Columbia is not on the map, but the University of Illinois system is listed. 

Election Day is not a holiday everywhere, but it is in many places in Illinois. According to the Illinois State Board of Elections, the day is considered a “legal school holiday” for public schools, including in Chicago. Schools that are closed for the day can then be used as potential polling places, according to state law. 

Election Day is a federal and state holiday, but not in Chicago.

As Election Day approaches, some students have taken advantage of voting early. According to Bloyd-Peshkin, about 50% of Columbia students are registered to vote by mail. 

Megan Brown, a senior music business major, is planning to vote by mail in her home state of Missouri but is still supportive of having the day off as a way to bring attention to voting. 

“I think it’s really important to give students the time and dedicated space to perform their civic duty, whether they choose to or not,” Brown said. 

Generation Z accounts for 41 million eligible voters nationwide, and both major party candidates are targeting them.

Although younger voters typically do not go to the polls at the same rate as older voters, they could be deciders in the 2024 election if enough turn out. 

Some students, like senior graphic design major JJ Salgado, are organizing their friends to hit the polls on Election Day. 

“I believe I’ll just go with some friends, I usually always do. I gather around some people and we kind of just do it together, make it an activity,” Salgado said. 

Some students who were planning on voting early are now looking forward to casting their vote on Election Day. Cameron Counts, a sophomore film and television major, said they would not have been able to vote without the day off.

“I probably would not have been able to find time. So it’s awesome that they are doing that,” Counts said.

Anesa Nevzadi, a junior film major, was very hopeful that having the day off will encourage other students to go out and vote, and that other schools will follow Columbia’s example. 

“I think that voting is an obligation that everyone has. Schools, being a representative for the youth in a country, taking that step to provide us with a day to do something like this, go out and vote as an obligation is a very necessary step in ensuring that our future is taking the measures that they need to, in order to make our future better,” Nevzadi said. 

Copy edited by Doreen Abril Albuerne-Rodriguez