Organization Boosts Voting

By MARIAN CABALLO Sun Staff Writer

Cornell Votes, a nonpartisan student organization, launched a new voting ambassador program at the start of the semester, aiming to boost civic engagement through peerto-peer outreach.

“It’s a program to have students pick up a leadership role to understand themselves how to get more civically engaged, and to get other students to understand their civic responsibilities,” said Rahul Verma ’24, the organization’s community engagement department chair.

lead in guiding new voters, according to Lauren Sherman ’24, vice president of external operations.

While there is no formal application process, prospective ambassadors must fill out the Cornell Votes interest form. They also need to attend a training session that covers voting essentials. After a short quiz and a tabling experience accompanied by an executive board member, ambassadors can sign up for events on their own.

difference in the lives of children every day, who are besieged,” Kane said. “It’s both an emotional commitment and a practical commitment to helping those who really deserve and need our help.”

In addition to the $5,100 raised at Sunday’s concert, the Ithaca Rotary Club has received $4,500 in sponsorships and corporate or personal donations to support School #95. Kane said she expects the total donations to rise as they receive more donations through March 15.

“This is amazing to have achieved, and we’re grateful to every community member who attended. And of course, to every musician and artist who donated their talent,” Kane wrote in a statement to The Sun following the concert.

Sponsored by the University, Cornell Votes was founded in 2020 to increase voter turnout among students on campus. The voting ambassador initiative builds upon existing programming within Cornell Votes, allowing students from inside and outside of the organization to participate in civic engagement activities.

“Our motto is we don’t care who you vote for, or where you vote, just vote,” said Elena Woo ’24, president of Cornell Votes. “Our main purpose is to engage students on campus by offering these opportunities to get experience, take charge and help other students.”

Cornell Votes aims to provide hands-on experiences for ambassadors and volunteers to take the

Ambassadors do not have to be a part of the student organization, meaning they do not have to attend all Cornell Votes meetings.

“The most important thing is that there is a process of being able to look up the correct information to provide to students,” Woo said.

The board acknowledged that assisting students may seem intimidating at first, but it is not the responsibility of ambassadors to know everything about voting.

“We have students from all fifty states, which have completely different timelines and rules for absentee voting,” Woo said. “It is really difficult to expect the voting ambassadors to know all of these little details, so we always emphasize that it’s fine to say that you don’t know how to answer a question.”

See VOTE page 4