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New Jersey Lt. Governor Tahesha Way encouraged college and university students across the state to register and commit to vote during the seventh annual State of New Jersey Ballot Bowl Kick-Off event held on September 17—National Voter Registration Day—on campus.
“I want to shout out the students and staff who are showing up here for democracy,” said Lt. Gov. Way to an overflowing audience in the University Commons Ballrooms. “Our elections in New Jersey are consequential and I want you to be informed voters.”
Way, who also serves as New Jersey’s Secretary of State, established the annual statewide nonpartisan voter registration and engagement competition. Collegiate-based teams compete to see who can register the most voters and obtain the most commitments to vote based on their campus size.
The festive event included opportunities for students to get information and register to vote. Other special guests include New York Giants players Kayvon Thibodeaux and Bobby Okereke, who also advocated for the students to register and vote. Many state and local officials were also in attendance, including Assemblywoman Linda Carter, Assemblywoman Alixon Collazos-Gill, Assemblywoman Garnet Hall, Assemblyman Julio Marenco, Assemblywoman Tennille McCoy, Assemblywoman Shavonda Sumter, Assemblyman Benji wimberly, and Assemblyman Michael Venezia, as well as Pompton Lakes Councilman Bobby Cruz, Essex County Clerk Chris Durkin, and Passaic County Clerk Danielle Ireland-Imhoff.
University President Richard Helldobler noted that civic engagement is central to William Paterson’s mission of educating active professionals and citizens who make a difference in their professions and in their communities. “Of all the ways to get involved in civic engagement, none is more fundamental to creating change than voting,” he said. “Whether through policymaking, budget allocations, or legislation, our elected representatives have tremendous influence on the things that matter to us collectively. So, who we, as constituents, choose to represent us – in town or city halls, in Trenton, and in Washington, D.C. – matters. And it’s up to us. Win or lose, the best way to have a say in the outcome is to vote.”
Idida Rodriguez ‘86, a member of the University’s Board of Trustees, described her first involvement in an election when at age 14 her Spanish teacher recruited her to participate in distributing literature for a campaign in her hometown of Paterson. “As citizens, the most fundamental way to make or voices heard is through voting,” she said.
Teddy Lockhart, president of the William Paterson Student Government Association, encouraged his peers to head to the voting booth this fall. “One of the most important ways to make an impact is to exercise our right to vote,” he said. “We have the power to influence issues.”
William Paterson has long been involved in encouraging youth participation in voting. The University was recently recognized with a Bronze Seal by the ALL IN Campus Democracy Challenge for its nonpartisan democratic engagements efforts that fostered high levels of student voter engagement in the 2022 midterm elections.
The University has an active chapter of the American Democracy Project (ADP), currently led by sociology professor Mark Ellis and the campus ADP Committee. All year, every year, ADP organizes programming aimed at creating graduates who are committed to engaging in meaningful actions as democratic citizens.
This semester, leading into the presidential election, ADP will host programming in the David and Lorraine Cheng Library on campus, to include Voting 101 seminars where students are taught how to vote in a real voting booth. In the past, elected officials from across the state have visited these seminars and met with the students in attendance.
09/18/24
