The Nassau County Board of Elections has named Hofstra as a site for early voting for the April 2, 2024 presidential primary! Early in-person voting runs from Saturday, March 23, through Saturday, March 30, 2024. Hofstra is one of 27 sites designated in Nassau County.
What is early in-person voting?
New York State adopted early in-person voting in 2019, and the practice became more common across the country during the Covid pandemic. Early voting, like mail-in voting or absentee voting, is one way that states have sought to broaden people’s access to the ballot, making it more convenient to vote. Forty-six states now offer this option in one form or another.1
Do most college campuses have polling places?
Although the New York State Legislature passed a law in 2022 requiring universities to have polling places, implementation has been slow. An estimated 25 percent of private universities in New York state actually have them, and only a small portion are designated as early voting sites.2 Hofstra is first Nassau County college to have been selected for early in-person voting, which lasts for eight days.
Why is early voting good for students?
The key answer here is convenience. Youth voting typically lags behind voting in other age groups. Voting by 18-24-year-olds reached 51.8% in the 2024 election – a historic high, even though it was barely a majority of the eligible youth electorate. Despite that historic high, young people’s voting rate was still 20% lower than the voter participation of 45- to 60-year-olds.3
College students in particular have a hard time getting out to vote. Though college students can choose to register and vote in the locality where they go to school, they are often too busy with classes, extracurriculars, work, and family commitments to make time to vote in person on one specific day, Election Day.
Many students register to vote using their permanent home address, and then plan to vote using an absentee ballot. But that process can be complicated. Often they must request the absentee ballot, make sure they receive it at their school address, and vote using regular surface mail, making sure they have observed deadlines of their particular state. Finally, an increasing number of states have imposed barriers to college student voting, such as voter ID requirements that exclude college IDs. This is what makes the opportunity to vote early so precious.
Can I vote early at Hofstra?
1 National Council of State Legislatures, March 12, 2024. https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/early-inperson-voting.
2 “Little Has Changed: Poll Sites on College Campuses in New York State since the 2022 College Poll Mandate,” Bard College, Bard Center for Civic Engagement, February 16, 2024, p. 3. https://www.bard.edu/wwwmedia/pr/files/19861/Voting_Study_Feb_16_Embargo_final_v4.pdf.
3 “Little Has Changed,” p. 2.
Our polling place will be open to all Nassau County registered voters – including students who are registered at their Hofstra dormitory and immediate off-campus addresses. Voting will take place at the Student Center at the following times:
Saturday, March 23: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Sunday, March 24: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Monday, March 25: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Tuesday, March 26: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Wednesday, March 27: 10 a.m.-7 p.m.
Thursday, March 28: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
Friday, March 29: 6 a.m.-3 p.m.
Saturday, March 30: 9 a.m.-6 p.m.
What happens if I’m not registered to vote?
Voter registration for the presidential primary concludes on March 23, 2024. You can’t participate in early voting if you did not register before this time. But you can vote early at Hofstra in the U.S. House and Senate and state legislative primaries (June 25, 2024), and the general (presidential) election (November 5, 2024) if you meet the following deadlines:
Deadline to register to vote in the June 25 primary: June 15, 2024.
Deadline to register to vote in the November 5 election: October 26, 2024.
What if I’m registered to vote somewhere outside of Nassau County?
If you are registered outside of Nassau County, find out whether there is early inperson voting in your county or state. The best place to do this is to do a quick internet search for the Board of Elections wherever you live.
How do I know if I’m registered to vote?
If you can’t remember whether you registered, go to Vote.org and look up whether you are registered. If you have some reason to believe that the information here is not correct, call the board of elections of your home county.
What happens when I enter the polling area?
When you come into the polling place, election inspectors from the Nassau County Board of Elections will ask you to sign in on an iPad to make sure you’re a registered voter in Nassau County. You will not be asked for identification unless you are a first-time voter.
Once the check-in is completed, election inspectors will provide you with a paper ballot to mark, depending on which primary (i.e. Republican or Democratic) you’re participating in. You will mark your ballot and guide it into a large tallying machine. If you have any questions, you are free to ask election inspectors, who generally stand behind the tally machine, out of sight of your ballot.
That’s it!
Will I be able to do early voting at Hofstra in the future?
Early voting is designated for the entire election cycle: Hofstra is poised to remain a site for the House/Senate and state office primary (June 25) and the general (presidential) election (November 5) in 2024.
Can I vote in person at Hofstra on election day, April 2, 2024?
No. It is important to note that if a registered voter wishes to cast their ballot on election day itself, the voter must go to his or her regular polling place; Hofstra’s Student Center polling place will only be available for early voting March 23 – 30, 2024.
What is Hofstra Votes?
Hofstra Votes is a nonpartisan voter education campaign initiated by the university to maintain its compliance with the 1998 Reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, which requires colleges to give students the opportunity to register to vote. Voter registration is funded by the university and staffed by CCE fellows and student volunteers. During Fall 2023, a local election season, volunteers tallied some 300 encounters with students, offering voter registration and advice on obtaining absentee ballots and polling places.
You can visit our nonpartisan voter registration table all week from Monday, March 25, 2024, to Saturday March 30, 2024, in the Student Center Atrium, and each Monday thereafter for the rest of the Spring 2024 semester. You can see more information at www.hofstra.edu/votes. Questions can be addressed to vote@hofstra.edu.