Political science junior Kade Crisp, left, and Denise Gilmore, volunteer deputy voter registrar with the Victoria County Election Administration, right, work to help a student get registered to vote on Sept. 15 at University Commons.

With National Voter Registration Day on Sept. 15 as its anchor, Texas A&M University-Victoria has launched a week-long tabling event aimed at helping students, especially first-time voters, get ballot ready.

Throughout the week, students have the chance to register to vote from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the lobby of University Commons. The tabling, organized by Student Involvement, began on Monday, Sept. 14 and will run until Friday, Sept. 18.

A staffed table will offer easy, on-the-spot registration, said Hailey Watson, A&M-Victoria Student Involvement coordinator. Students can complete their voter registration cards and drop them into a secure collection box which will be delivered to the Pattie Dodson Public Health Center for processing. Students also have access to pamphlets listing polling locations by precinct and key election dates and deadlines.

Hailey Watson

“It’s important for our students to be active in their community,” Watson said. “For our freshman students who are newly adults, they’re finally able to have a voice, and we are helping them take that next step.”

The effort aligns with the Victoria County Elections Administration’s “1776 Initiative,” which works to place registration boxes inside some local businesses in Victoria County throughout this week. Representatives from the election administration will visit the table intermittently over the week to assist with questions.

For political science junior Kade Crisp, civic engagement is more than just a requirement of democracy, it’s a commitment that shaped his academic and professional goals.

A Victoria native, Crisp has been interning at the Victoria County Elections Administration for the past month supporting its efforts to increase voter participation. And on Tuesday morning at University Commons, he was doing just that.

As part of his internship, his duties range from organizing and sorting voter registrations, to helping set up outreach materials, writing informational blogs and offering feedback on engagement strategies.

Voting is both a civic virtue and a civic responsibility, Crisp said. Some people might feel like their singular vote does not matter, but elections are the cumulative result of many individual choices, especially among younger voters, he added. If more young people cast ballots, their combined impact could alter electoral outcomes and help close a persistent voter participation gap, Crisp said.

As a political science major, Crisp hopes to become a professor and eventually pursue a career in politics. His fascination lies with not only American institutions, but also in how political systems function in other countries. Politics, in its essence, is a lens through which societies build, organize and define themselves, he said.

“I believe that people’s voices are represented when they do vote,” Crisp said. “My goal, my wish, is to get as many young people on board as possible.”