Abstract

As someone who is deeply passionate about motivating young people and students to vote, my senior political science thesis sought to better understand and explain the contemporary variation in student access to the polls during election cycles. To delve into these variations, I hypothesized that students who are in social science or humanities fields and who tend to be more engaged on campus—whether through student organizations, volunteering, on campus jobs, et cetera—may face less barriers and will also be more likely to overcome any barriers experienced. This was based around the theory that students who are more educated on potential barriers, are already civically engaged in other ways, are able to forge a diverse community on campus, and therefore have greater access to resources will be better equipped to overcome barriers they encounter. I aimed to test these hypotheses by cross referencing the number of reported barriers a student faced, whether or not they were able to overcome those hurdles, and then looking at what major and/or minor they are as well as how involved they are on campus, even prior to college. The data used for these variables was pulled directly from a survey conducted by me which gathered hundreds of responses from the student body at UNC Asheville. This is especially considering the Fall 2024 semester was deemed the Semester of Civics which sought to get students more involved in and informed about the election through a myriad of events. Thus, by utilizing the findings from my case study of UNC Asheville, I hope to provide insights and recommendations to the university on how to best support student civic engagement efforts going forward and ensuring students have equitable access to the polls in future elections.

Keywords

Political Science, Voting, Voting Laws, Access to the Polls, Student Voting, Student Survey

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