Voting Drives at Frederick Community College Helps Students Find Their Voices

By Kyle Waterman

Since 2020, Frederick Community College has been hosting voter registration drives  to make registration to vote more quickly and easily accessible to students.

The next voter registration drive is 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday, April 22, in the Student Center at FCC. 

The drives are organized by Kristi Mills and Richard “Kap” Kaplowitz. Mills handles organizing the event while she calls Kaplowitz, the “man behind the table.”

“To be perfectly honest, if only one person registers to vote at a drive, I consider it successful because it is one more person who can vote at the next election,” Mills said. “Of course, we definitely want more to register at each drive, though.”

According to the Maryland State Board of Elections and the United States Census Bureau, roughly 70% of people in Frederick County are registered to vote. Across the country, the percentage of people aged 18 to 24 lags heavily behind older adults in the world of voting.

According to Statista, in 2022 only 49.1% of Americans aged 18 to 24 are registered to vote, with the second lowest being those aged 25 to 34. The average youth voter turnout across the U.S. was even lower, with the estimated percentage of eligible youths casting a ballot in the 2022 election being possibly as low as 23% based on a study conducted by Circle.

 “Getting students to register and actually vote is beneficial to our community,” Mills said. “The more people who vote, the better. The drives assist in step one of that process.” 

Taking part in the When We All Vote initiative, FCC’s voting drives aim to close an existing gap in the number of registered voters who are women or part of a minority group.

“FCC will continue to hold voter registration drives every semester. They are more frequent during election years, but we do have them in non-election years. As to what they may look like, they may evolve into more than just tabling,” Mills said. “We have to stay apprised of trends and technology to make sure we are reaching students in the best way possible.”

FCC also offers resources on its website’s landing pages, including year-round access to voting registration tools.