ANNAPOLIS – With Maryland’s advance voter registration deadline approaching Oct. 13, student organizations on college campuses across the state are working to get more young people registered and prepared to cast their ballots.
From voter registration drives to election information pop-ups, students at campuses, including St. John’s College, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland, hope to make voting more accessible for their peers.
But student leaders said getting young people to the polls involves more than reminding them to register. They said some students don’t know the election deadlines or what’s on the ballot, while others are unsure about the steps required to register and vote.
“A lot of people are curious about who’s on the ballot,” said Ishika Jain, a TerpsVote ambassador at the University of Maryland. “What are we actually voting for this year?”
TerpsVote, a nonpartisan organization, aims to boost civic engagement and close information gaps. The group sets up tables at campus events, including recently at a farmers market where ambassadors provided information about registration, candidates and ballot measures.
Election expert Thomas Hicks said it’s important for young people to register to vote and have their voice heard.
“What are they waiting for?” Hicks, former chairman of the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, told Capital News Service. “They should register as soon as possible.”
Students aim to mobilize their peers
Students at Bowie State University are working to encourage their peers to participate more in elections.
“We’ve been doing a lot of mobilizing with programming with a lot of our organizations,” said Ciyanda Green, chief justice of the university’s Student Government Association.
Green and others from Bowie attended a panel on voting rights last month at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s legislative conference in Washington, D.C. Maryland lawmakers also attending the conference pledged to support voting rights protections.
In Annapolis, officers of the Delegate Council, the student government at St. John’s College, said some students on campus have also urged young people to register.
Addyson Csordas recalled students recently setting up a voter registration drive in the campus auditorium.
“I feel like that’s pretty similar to a lot of college campuses where you have a group of people that are more impassioned about it,” said Csordas, who handles communications for the council.
From Jan. 1 to Aug. 12, 2026, 15,646 Marylanders age 18 to 22 registered to vote for the first time, according to an analysis of Maryland State Board of Elections data by Derek Willis, a lecturer at the University of Maryland’s Philip Merrill College of Journalism.
The rate of young people in Maryland registering to vote has been roughly flat from 2022 and up from 2018.
The increase has been pronounced in Prince George’s County, home to the University of Maryland and Bowie State University. New registrations among 18-to-22-year-olds in the county were up 17% compared with the same period in 2022.
“Marylanders are increasingly registering as unaffiliated, and Prince George’s County is among the leading places where that’s happened,” Willis said. “Some of that is being driven by younger voters who are rejecting both major parties, which is also happening in older age groups.”
Students urged to take action
Despite the increase in registrations, some student leaders said it doesn’t always mean their peers understand what to do next.
Jackson Snyder, president of St. John’s College Delegate Council, said he recently helped his roommate request a mail-in ballot.
“I think there is just this view that it’s a complicated process and that might deter some people from starting it in the first place,” he said.
Snyder said he thinks most students on campus believe their vote matters, but don’t always follow through with action.
“If you were to then say ‘OK, did you get a mail-in ballot and fill it out and go walk two blocks away and send it off?’” he said. “They’d be like ‘Oh, I would but I have a reading group in 15 minutes that I have to get to.’”
In Maryland, the early voter registration deadline is Oct. 13. Same-day registration is available Election Day, Nov. 3 at polling sites. Early voting runs from Oct. 22 to Oct. 29.
Hicks, the election expert, said young people who may be putting off the process should register early because unexpected circumstances could get in the way later. He also pointed to the benefits of social media for sharing voting reliable information when it’s from election officials and advocacy groups.
“Misinformation has always been there,” Hick said. “The problem now is that it can be done so quickly and immediately.”
For some students, getting informed and casting a ballot comes down to feeling like their participation matters.
Nylah Schultz, a sophomore at St. John’s College, said voting is important even when it’s one ballot.
“The vote counts because I made it,” Schultz said. “Even if it’s just another tally on there, it’s my tally.”
This story was originally published by Capital News Service, cnsmaryland.org. Reprinted without changes.
