Pop‑up booth helps demystify voting for students

An enterprising group of Dalhousie students set up a mock voting station on campus this week to raise awareness about when, where and how students can cast a ballot in this year’s federal election.

The booth, which included an official Elections Canada ballot box, voting screen, and how-to pamphlets, was so convincing to some students passing by that they stopped to see if they could vote there.

“All day, people have been coming up and asking, ‘Can I vote here?’” said Ryhan Schennery, a fourth-year double major in Political Science and Law, Justice, and Society who was volunteering at the booth Wednesday morning.

While it quickly became clear to students dropping by that they couldn’t, in fact, vote there, volunteers such as Schennery from the Dalhousie Undergraduate Political Science Society (DUPSS) were armed with information to share about how they could go about doing so on campus.

Helping first-time voters

The simulation is part of a broader Vote PopUp movement gaining momentum in different communities across Canada. The popups are intended to help demystify the voting process for individuals who might be unfamiliar with it, such as the many first-time voters who are university age.

Fourth-year student Dong Ngo, vice-president of events with DUPSS and organizer of the Dal popup, says the simulation also served to spark conversations with people about the value in casting a ballot.

More: Elections Canada student voting information

“We all care about something, but a lot of people just don’t see the correlation between the issues they care about and voting, and how that can affect their issues,” he says.

To gauge Dal students’ priorities, the popup booth near the Tim Hortons in the Life Sciences Centre (LSC) provided mock ballots with various issues from the election campaign listed on them that people could fill out and insert into a. ballot box. Housing, tuition fees, environment, jobs and taxes were just a few of the options ‘voters’ had to choose from.

Power in partnership

Dong says Elections Canada was very responsive when he reached out to them about getting the supplies to run the simulation.

“All the gear that you see here, they donated to us. It’s been a big help,” he said. “The voting cards and everything, all we needed to do was reach out to them and within two days they sent us all of these supplies.”

Another DUPSS volunteer on duty Wednesday, first-year student Daniel Hudson of Winnipeg, said he used the popup to provide the kind of timely information that students could use to make voting easier — such as the opportunity for students to submit a special ballot on campus this week.

 “It’s almost like a reminder,” he said. “They see this and we tell them, ‘Oh, it’s the last day to do special-ballot voting on campus. Here’s where you go, here’s what you need.’"

DUPSS will hold another popup next Wednesday from 9:30 am - 3:30 pm in the same location.

Further reading: Students get hands‑on with the federal election