JumboVote, an organization dedicated to promoting civic engagement and voter turnout, hosted a series of Election Day panels co-sponsored by the Jonathan M. Tisch College of Civic Life.
The panels included conversations with professors from the Department of Political Science and researchers from Tisch College, as well as student organizations around campus, according to the Tisch College election week event website.
Lidya Woldeyesus, student co-chair of JumboVote, said the organization has been planning this election programming for over a year.
“Our first meeting was in January and we started talking about what we would want to lead up to Election Day ... We wanted to make sure that we're supporting students in the best way possible,” Woldeyesus, a junior, said.
However, COVID-19 forced JumboVote to change its plans for outreach, recruitment and Election Day events, according to Matthew Tolbert, who leads the Democracy Representatives program and is the former student co-chair of JumboVote.
“Things have been shifting constantly this semester so these plans actually came together in a pretty short amount of time ... We’ve had to continuously adapt to the needs of this semester,” Tolbert, a senior, wrote in an email to the Daily.
The first panel, “How to Watch Election Night Like a Pro,” featured Brian Schaffner, professor of political science and civic studies. The panel, which took place on the afternoon of Election Day, reviewed which states to watch as election results came in, as well as how to follow trends, how results are reported and how networks call states for candidates.
Beginning at 9 p.m. on Tuesday, JumboVote held panels, with the final one starting at midnight.
The first evening panel featured Alan Solomont, dean of Tisch College, and Peter de Guzman, research program coordinator for the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement and the Institute for Democracy & Higher Education. Solomont and de Guzman covered the youth vote and their impact on the results of the 2020 election.
The next panel, “Real-Time Results with JumboVote,” featured Schaffner alongside Deborah Schildkraut, chair of the political science department. The panel included a discussion and analysis of the election results as they came in.
“Politics and Student Organizing at Tufts: A Panel By & For Students” had representatives from various Tufts student organizations, includingTufts Democrats, Tufts Republicans, Tufts Community Union Senate and JumboVote. They discussed planning for Election Day and what the results mean for their separate organizations and for Tufts as a whole.
JumboVote Democracy Representative Jane Romp explained the importance of having Tufts professors and students provide insight into the election results rather than only news networks.
“I think it's another thing to have a professor that you know and that you trust ... they let you ask questions on a chat feature of the Facebook Live and they would answer it and you can't replicate that by watching CNN or NBC,” Romp, a sophomore,said.
Romp believes the JumboVote panels were successful, garnering participation from many students.
Woldeyesus said that JumboVote has been working hard in its outreach efforts and sharing its message with students.
“Our metrics have shown that we've registered more voters through our voter registration database," Woldeyesus said. "We’ve had ... thousands of visitors to our website in the month of October alone.”
Woldeyesus said JumboVote will continue to promote civic engagement and help people find ways to get involved in their communities.
“Civic engagement doesn't stop at the ballot box ... you should be participating in democracy every single day year-round,” Woldeyesus said.
