College students loom important in November elections

• 69.2 million millennials are voting age; there are 69.7 million baby boomers.
• College students can choose to vote in their hometown or college community.
• Many students seem to be leaning toward third-party candidates for president.

Speaking at a recent forum, The Vanishing Voter, at Nazareth College, student Ryan Page made a pitch for students to participate in the November election.

"We can get involved and we can take control of what we think should be happening," said Page, who is president of the college's Undergraduate Association.

The ability to excite college students and get them to the polls was demonstrated by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders' bid for the Democratic nomination — with young voters accounting for the backbone of Sanders' strong but unsuccessful run in the primaries.

And there are plenty of potential voters who are young.

As of this past April, an estimated 69.2 million millennials — adults between the ages of 18 and 35 — were voting-age, which is almost equal to the 69.7 million baby boomers between the ages of 52 and 70, according to Pew Research Center.

Most students on college campuses are part of this millennial generation, but it's not at all clear how many will vote and for whom in the November presidential election. The deadline for registering is Oct. 14 in New York, though in Monroe County residents can show up at the county's Board of Elections on Oct. 15 and register.

► Debate night by the numbers for Trump and Clinton

► Who won the debate? Social media and 'The Cyber'

► Reminder: Must register to vote by Oct. 14

About 75 students turned out Monday for a Presidential Debate Watch Party at Monroe Community College. On a large screen, they watched Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton spar with Republican candidate Donald Trump.

Alec Bertelli, 18, who had backed Sanders in the Democratic primary, said afterward that he was "leaning more toward Hillary" who he thought "did by far" win the debate.

"She covered the hot topics in a more presidential way," said Bertelli, of Williamson, Wayne County.

James Murray, 23, of Syracuse, was leaning toward Trump before the debate and was "still leaning" toward him afterward. He said he thought the debate "was pretty even" and didn’t change any minds.

A number of Clinton supporters who were clearly in her camp before the debate seemed even more so following the face-off.

"She absolutely won the debate," said Aja Al-harbawi, 20, of Rochester. "She stuck to what she stands for."

Still, even though David Broadnax, 25, of Rochester, thought "definitely Hillary came out with a stronger impression," he remains undecided.

Efforts at compliance

Federal law requires that colleges make a good-faith effort to distribute voter registration forms to college students, though colleges in states with same-day registration aren't covered by that provision. A state regulation also requires colleges in the State University of New York System to ensure each student receives a registration form.

Some local colleges are clearly doing just that.

This summer, Rochester Institute of Technology President Bill Destler and his spouse Rebecca Johnson sent out a "Dear RIT Parents and Families" email that told of RIT's ROAR the Vote initiative — providing registration tables and using TurboVote, a computerized way of registering students here or in their home state.

"Youth voting rates are typically low. We want to change that at RIT!" concludes their email.

Under this initiative, about 400 RIT students have registered.

TurboVote technology has also helped register about 540 students since January at Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva. In 2014, HWS was named  “Top Campus of All Time” by TurboVote, based on the percentage of enrolled students who signed up to vote — 51.8 percent — during the previous two years.

At State University College at Geneseo, about 700 students have registered since move-in day in late August. The effort has been spearheaded by the college's Voter Engagement Task Force.

The University of Rochester probably had the most creative registration effort, Dance the Vote, this past Saturday at the Fringe Festival. UR’s dance and movement program organized this effort. They urged passers-by to register as they danced in front of the UR Arts Bus parked on Gibbs Street, with a registration table next to the bus.

But how young voters will cast their ballots is less predictable this election year.

The college electorate seems much more fluid in their political preferences with third-party preferences — Libertarian candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party candidate Jill Stein — playing into the mix.

Among the unknowns is how many Sanders voters will back Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Will they instead vote for a third-party candidate or simply sit out the general election?

Clinton is increasingly focusing on the youth vote, recently telling students at Temple University in Philadelphia, "I need you as partners."

A couple of days earlier, first lady Michelle Obama, in her first campaign trail speech for Clinton, weighed in.

"And let's be clear, elections are not just about who votes, but who does not vote. And that is especially true for young people, like all of you," she told students at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.

Republican rift

On the Republican side, GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump does not have a lock on college Republicans.

Certainly, there are many college Republicans who support him, such as Ryan Brenek, president of the RIT College Republicans.

"Really, the economy is very important," said Brenek, 19, who is a third-year student from East Lyme, Connecticut, majoring in networking and systems administration.

Brenek said that the College Republicans at RIT were not meeting during his freshman year. He has since tried to rebuild, with 10 to 15 students attending weekly meetings and about 75 students on the mailing list.

Trump, said Brenek, "could choose his words better," but said almost everyone who attends the weekly meetings supports him.

That, however, is not the case with the College Republicans at SUNY Geneseo.

"We are not endorsing anyone," said Adam Dohrenwend, who is president of the Geneseo College Republicans.

The group, which gets at least 20 students at its weekly meetings, recently posted a statement on Facebook in support of the Cornell chapter of the College Republicans, which had recently been stripped of its credentials for the fall semester by the New York Federation of College Republicans.

That action was prompted by the chapter's backing of Libertarian presidential candidate Johnson.

Dohrenwend, 21, who is from Fallsburg, Sullivan County, also plans to vote for Johnson and said, "Trump does not represent anything that needs to be in the White House."

The University of Rochester College Republicans also issued a statement — posted on Twitter —  that condemned the state federation for expelling the Cornell chapter. "Unfortunately, this is only one of many examples in which the party has abandoned its core principles in the age of Trump," says UR Republicans' statement.

UR's College Republicans have not decided whether to endorse a candidate, but the chapter president, Scott Onestak, 21, of New Wilmington, Pennsylvania, is considering a write-in candidate, perhaps Mitt Romney.

With a recent change of leadership on the state federation of College Republicans' board, Cornell was reinstated last week as a member of the group — and had its Republican credentials restored.

Hobart and William Smith's College Republicans also are not endorsing in the presidential race.

"We're strictly local," said Tyler Fuller, who is president of this student group.

Whether to endorse Trump has also been an issue with some College Republican chapters in other states.

Calling the Trump candidacy "a massive elephant in the room," The Chronicle of Higher Education recently reported that "the nominee's unpopularity on many campuses has prompted chapters to take actions that, four years ago, would have been unthinkable: withholding endorsements, focusing on down-ballot races, and sometimes even splintering."

Clinton's challenge

A coolness toward Hillary Clinton's presidential bid among students is also not hard to find on college campuses.

Alessandra Santarosa, president of the RIT College Democrats, said: " We want to vote for the party, not the person."

Santarosa, 19, of Youngstown, Niagara County, said that she's "leaning toward" supporting Clinton, as are most of the students who attend the meetings of the College Democrats.

Lacking is the excitement generated by Sanders, who was described by Santarosa as a candidate "funded by the people and, therefore, for the people."

A different take on Clinton comes from Alexis Wallace, president of the UR College Democrats: " I think she is a very strong leader. ... We agree on a lot of issues."

Wallace, 20, who comes from a military family, said that the quality of education is the most important issue for her.

Clinton also gets the unqualified backing from Kelsey VanEtten, president of the Geneseo College Democrats, who describes Clinton as someone who "gets things done."

But third-party candidates have a draw among some college Democrats.

Nazareth student Malik James, 19, of Queens, while enrolled as a Democrat, is supporting Green Party candidate Stein.

"I believe that corporate money does not belongs in politics. Because she is free from corporate influence — she doesn't take money from corporations — I feel connected to her," he said.

James was one of two Nazareth students who participated in College Debate 2016, which is the voter education partner of the Commission on Presidential Debates.

Run by Dominican University of California, the voter education partnership selected 150 students from a pool recommended by colleges across the nation. The students are now trying to generate enthusiasm for the election at their campuses.

James and the other Nazareth student chosen, Angela Tona, 21, of Buffalo, spent three days in June and another three days in September at the Dominican campus in San Rafael, California.

After discussing the issues facing the nation, the student delegates came up with a handful of questions that have been passed on to the moderators of the presidential debates.

James helped draft a pointed question: "What will you do to reduce the recidivism and mass incarceration rates in communities where poverty and violence are prevalent?"

One of the unanswered questions is how many young voters not affiliated with either major party will vote third-party.

Nazareth student Jeffrey Salamone, 19, of Manlius, Onondaga County, enrolled in the Independence Party at the voter registration table students set up outside the recent forum held at that college.

Rejecting both Trump and Clinton, Salamone said that he plans to vote for Johnson.

At RIT, Nigel Blair, 21, who is a third-year student from Gates and a member of the International Socialist Organization active at RIT, intends to vote for Stein.

The Sanders' candidacy, Blair said, generated a "tremendous level of optimism," but Clinton is "not an option."

"Both parties are dictated by corporate interests," he said.

Growth of student voters

The college vote became part of the American political landscape less than a half century ago.

In 1970, changes in the Voting Rights Act gave 18-year-olds the right to vote.

Until then, all but five states — New York was not one of them — required citizens to be 21 years of age before they could vote.

A year later, after the U.S. Supreme Court had struck down the Voting Rights Act's provision that established 18 as the voting age in state and local elections, the 26th Amendment was approved — providing 18-year-olds the right to vote in all elections.

With the voting age nationwide at 18, there has been a steady flow of potential voters coming of age.

Since the 2012 election, 16.5 million youths have turned 18, according to the Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts.

The center also details the changing background of the population, with the number of young people who identify themselves as white between the ages of 18 and 29 dropping from 79 percent in 1976 to 62 percent in 2006.

Latinos in this age group increased from 8 to 18 percent during these three decades.

Over the years, the turnout of younger voters has lagged behind other groups, but that changed with the 2008 Obama candidacy.

In Monroe County, with Obama on the ballot in 2008, the number of registered voters between the ages of 18 and 24 rose to 46,502.

About 26,000 new voters registered in the county since January, but how many of these are young voters is unknown.

In October 2015 — the most recent breakdown of voters by age in the county — the number of voters in the 18-to-24 age group totaled 28,657.

When all the millennials — ages 18 to 34 — were tallied, there were 91,601 of them registered to vote, compared with 110,994 in 2008.

The low turnout — 6 percent — of SUNY Geneseo students in the 2014 election was something that Tom Matthews, associate dean of leadership at the college, did not want repeated.

"It was alarming to me that we didn’t have a greater number," he said.

He subsequently helped form the Voter Engagement Task force, which included not only college faculty, staff and students, but also the Democrat and Republican commissioners of Livingston County.

Since the start of the school year, an estimated 700 Geneseo students have been registered with the help of this task force, which has made registration forms available at the college’s dorms and in the lobby of the MacVittie College Union on the SUNY Geneseo campus.

Many college students from outside New York — a historically Democratic state — have registered in their home states.

"I believe my vote will have a little more power in Colorado," said Neville Hyllegard, 19, who is from Fort Collins and is vice president of the Hobart and William Smith College Democrats.

But Vito Martino, president of the Students’ Association at UR, has a different message. He is urging UR students to enroll in Monroe County.

"Students don’t have an idea that they can make a difference," said Martino, noting that they should have a voice in the public affairs in the community of the college they attend.

Martino, a senior from Wappingers Falls, Dutchess County, recently registered to vote in Monroe County.

The importance of students registering to vote — whether at their college residence or hometown — was the underlying message of the recent Vanishing Voter forum at Nazareth College.

Professor Timothy Kneeland, chairman of history and political science department at Nazareth, stressed this point in his opening remarks.

"Staying home is not a position,” Kneeland said. “Change doesn't come if you sit on the sidelines."

JGOODMAN@Gannett.com

College registration efforts

► University of Rochester: UR’s Center for Community Leadership (RCCL) has managed registration efforts — scheduling nine drives this school year. UR's e-newsletters and RCCL’s Facebook page have spread the word. RCCL has also partnered with the local chapter of League of Women Voters as well as UR student political organizations in these registration drives.

► Rochester Institute of Technology: Created ROAR the Vote initiative to lead registration effort, which is run by Kerry Foxx, director of RIT's Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement. Information about registration and voting can be found at Roar the Vote website. RIT uses TurboVote, which connects to a website that allows students to access what they need to register, here or elsewhere. 

► Hobart and William Smith Colleges: HWS Votes has led registration efforts, using TurboVote. Campus-wide emails have been issued about voter registration and table registration has taken place at the Scandling Campus Center. New students were also told about registration during orientation, with a registration table set up during check-in. 

► The College at Brockport: Paper registration forms have been available at every residence hall, Drake Memorial Library and the mailroom of the Seymour College Union. By the end of September, an email will be sent to students encouraging them to vote and giving them instructions on how to do so. The college uses TurboVote. Until Oct. 13, tables are being set up for registration at Seymour College Union. A faculty member and staff member are visiting more than 40 classrooms and talking about voting. Through Sept. 21, 251 students had been registered.

► Monroe Community College: Registration efforts this school year began during summer sessions. Registration forms are available in a number of offices on campus, including Student Life and Leadership Development. The Student Government Association worked with the League of Women Voters to conduct a registration drive on Sept 19. Students are informed where voter registration forms are available and are provided a link to obtain a voter registration form online through the college’s daily electronic newsletter. MCC’s Damon City campus has hosted registration programs led by the Black Student Union and the Student Events & Governance Association.

► St. John Fisher College:  The college’s Student Government Association (SGA) organized a voter registration drive during Fisher’s annual Involvement Fest on Sept. 20. Fisher hosted the C-SPAN Campaign 2016 Bus that same day.  The bus, which stopped at various high schools and colleges across the state, showcases interactive exhibits that include candidate videos and touch-screen quizzes. This week, SGA is running a voter awareness campaign and the college’s Wellness Wednesday initiative at the Campus Center will be devoted to voter registration.

► Nazareth College: Hard copies of the voter registration form were available to students during the college’s orientation and have been at different registration drives throughout the year. The Undergraduate Association also pays for students to use TurboVote. Two students who participated in College Debate 2016 are helping to generate activities around the presidential election, including a debate watching party that was held Monday.

► State University College at Geneseo:  A candidate’s forum will be held at the college on. Oct.13. Hosted viewing of the live TV broadcast of Presidential Debate. Created Voter Engagement Task Force to spearhead registration efforts, which has made registration forms available at the college’s dorms and at the MacVittie College Union. About 700 students have registered since the beginning of the school year.

► Roberts Wesleyan College:  Its Office of Student of Life has supported voter registration every Monday in September by distributing registration forms and absentee ballot applications. The college has reached out to students and encouraged them to attend the drives. Forms are also available at the Office of Student Life. By Sept 23, 25 students had registered as a result of the drive and about 30 students submitted absentee ballot applications.

► Finger Lakes Community College:  Since the beginning of the semester, members of the political science and history faculties have staffed a table mid-day Tuesdays and Thursdays with registration forms and voter information materials, and will continue to do so through Oct. 14. FLCC also has posters encouraging students to register, along with messages to register and vote on FLCC's electronic billboards and Facebook posts. History professor Robert Brown is organizing FLCC's effort.

► Genesee Community College: Have set up voter education/registration tables at the college’s club fairs and periodically at the college’s William W. Stuart Forum. A voter registration page can also be found on GCC's website, with links to downloadable forms. College also hosts Board of Elections and League of Women Voters, providing registration tables.